Shadowrun_Kill_Code_(Advanced_Matrix_Rules)

Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

KILL CODE
CONTENTS
& CREDITS
INTRODUCTION 5
DOUBLE DECKER 6
SO YOU WANT TO BE A HACKER 10
MATRIX 101 10
Draconic Networking 10
The Precursors of Our Current Matrix 10
What Is the Matrix? 14
A Look from the Inside 17
The Illegal Use of the Matrix 19
MANUAL OF THE MATRIX 22
Matrix Magic 22
Deckers Vs. Technomancers 23
Deckers 24
Programs 24
Agents 26
Technomancers 26
Resonance Actions 27
Complex Forms 27
Sprites 28
Opposition: Grid Overwatch Division 28
HOW TO HACK: 101 30
Marks and the Matrix 34
Doing What You Do Best 34
CYBERCOMBAT 35
Matrix Damage 36
Biofeedback 36
Dumpshock 36
Link-Locking 36
IC 37
HACKER HACKS 37
NEW MATRIX RULES 37
Reckless Hacking 37
New Matrix Actions 37
Calibration 37
Denial of Service 37
I Am the Firewall 38
Haywire 38
Intervene 39
Masquerade 39
Popup 39
Squelch 39
Subvert Infrastructure 39
Tag 40
Watchdog 40
GAMEMASTER’S GRIMOIRE OF THE MATRIX 40
Gamemaster Hacks 40
Matrix Mechanics for Gamemasters 42
VARIANT HOST TYPES 42
Foundation Hosts 43
Data Hosts 44
Industry Hosts 44
Destination Hosts 44
Nested Hosts 45
Non-Foundation Hosts 45
Outdated Hosts 46
Offline Hosts 46
Rogue Hosts 46
DIPS AND CHIPS 48
Ammo 48
Zapper Rounds 48
Looper Rounds 49
Fuzzy Rounds 50
E0-E0 Rounds 51
ArrowLink 52
Grenades 52
Fuzzy “Boom Boom Bunnies” Grenade 53
CoS (Cancellation of Service) Grenade 54
Douser 54
DumDum 55
Accessories and Toys 55
Faceless 55
Booster Cloud 56
Multiprogram Operating System 57
Booster Chips 59
Trode Patch 60
Cyberdecks 60
Fuchi Cyber-N Series 60
Fuchi Cyber-Ex Series 60
Security Decks 61
Hunter Decks 61
Aztechnology Shadow Warrior 62
Evo Sublime 62
Fairlight Destiny Blade 62
Aztechnology Defender 63
Kitbashed Sleeper 63
Cry Wolf Program 63
Cyberware and Bioware 65
Datajack Plus 65
Enhanced Augmented Reality
Reflex System 66
Cranial Shield 66
MCT BioLink 67
IC 67
Flicker 67
Sleuther 67
Blue Goo 68
Commlinks and RCC 68
Shiawase Cyber-6 RCC 68
SpinRad Global Skirmisher RCC 68
Horizon Flow Commlink 68
Wuxing Frequency Commlink 68
Saeder-Krupp Last Chance Link 69
PI-TAC Upgrades and Accessories 69
Pantheon Industries
PI-TAC “Tactical Apps” 70
Co-Pilot: MK I, II, and III 70
Door Gunner 71
ECM-Warrior 71
Mobile CnC 72
Shield Wall 72
PI-Tac Accessories 72
Pantheon Industries Tactical
Program Dongle 72
Pantheon Industries Hard Case CCOB 72
Spinrad Global/Pantheon
Industries Mercury-Alpha
Battlefield Signal Booster 73
DISK JOCKEYS AND
LIGHTSTREAM RIDERS 48
POSITIVE QUALITIES 76
Deck Builder 76
Impenetrable Logic 76
Rootkit 76
Silence is Golden 76
NEGATIVE QUALITIES 76
aVRse 76
Basement Dweller 77
Big Baby 77
Buddy System 77
Discombobulated 77
Down the Rabbit Hole 77
Echo Chamber 78
Frostbite 78
Information Auctioneer 78
Lazy Fingers 79
Malware Infection 79
Matrix Troll 79
Sloppy Code 79
Well, Actually ... 79
LIFE MODULES 79
Formative Years 79
Bootstrap ClichÉ 79
Hacking Savant 79
Have You Heard the Good Word? 80
The Itsy-Bitsy Spider 80
2 CONTENTS & CREDITS >>
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

Teen Years 80
Ath133t 80
Destined for Greatness 80
Hack-a-Thon Medalist 80
The Flow 81
Jacked Out 81
Matrix Royalty 81
Techno-Rigger, Qu’est-Ce Que C’est 81
PARALLEL PROCESSING 82
DATA STREAMS 86
HOW THEY FLOW 86
Sourcerers 86
Technoshamans 87
Machinists 88
Cyberadepts 88
New Technomancer Qualities:
Resonant Streams 89
Cyberadepts 89
Benefits 89
Daemon 90
Complex Form: Overdrive 90
Machinists 90
Benefits 90
Daemon 90
Complex Form: LOTO 90
Sourcerors 91
Benefits 91
Daemon 91
Complex Form: Hyperthreading 91
Technoshamans 91
Benefits 91
Daemon 91
Complex Form: Sprite Pet 91
IN THE FLOW 94
COMPLEX FORMS 94
Arc Feedback 94
Bootleg Program 94
Host Emulator 94
Mirrored Persona 95
Pinch 95
Primed Charge 95
Resonance Bind 95
Resonance Cache 95
Search History 95
Weaken Data Bomb 96
Weaken Encryption 96
TECHNOMANCER QUALITIES 96
Positive Qualities 96
Better on the Net 96
Brilliant Heuristics 96
Groveler 96
Hold the Door 96
Fractal Punch 96
Lone Wolf 96
Natural Hacker 97
One with the Matrix 97
Reverberant 97
Sprite Affinity 97
Team Player 97
Trust Data, Not Lore 97
Trust Lore, Not Data 97
Unique Avatar 98
Negative Qualities 99
Brittle [Attribute] 99
Code of Honor: Black Hat 99
Data Hog 99
Escaped Custody 99
Know Your Limit 99
On the Wagon 99
Resonant Burnout 99
Sprite Combustion 99
Taint of Dissonance 100
’Ware Intolerance 100
Wired User 100
SPRITES 100
Companion Sprite 100
Generalist Sprite 100
New Sprite Powers 100
Bodyguard 100
Shield 100
Optional Sprite Powers 100
Active Analytics 101
Borrowed IP 101
Decompiling Resistance 101
Enhance 101
Navi 101
Resilient Code 101
Resonance Spooling 101
ECHOES 101
Aegis 101
Draining Spike 101
Neural Synergy 101
Predictive Analytics 101
Resonance Resistance 102
The van der Waals Effect 102
Will of the Resonance 102
PARAGONS 102
Communion 102
Sample Paragons 103
01 (The World Tree) 103
Architect (The Builder) 103
Archivist (The Secret Keeper) 103
Black Hat (The Cracker) 103
Daedalus (The Inventor) 103
Delphi (The Oracle) 104
Intrusion Countermeasure (The Guardian) 104
Probe (The Scout) 104
Shooter (The Soldier) 104
A MILLION ICONS BLOOM 106
WHAT IS A VIRTUAL TRIBE? 106
How to Get in Touch With an Existing Tribe 107
Strictures 110
Attendance 110
Charity 110
Correction 110
Deed 110
Defender 110
Dues 110
Honesty 111
Infosharing 111
Secrecy 111
Service 111
PARAGONS IN TRIBES 111
AI in Tribes 112
VIRTUAL TRIBES AS CONTACTS 113
SAMPLE TRIBES 113
Replanting the Tree 113
Summer_Knights 114
TechnoRiggers 115
The Resonant Church 116
Flash Tribes 116
DIVING UNDER 118
HUNTING TECHNOMANCERS 118
Noticing that You’re Being Hunted 118
HOW THEY FIGHT 120
Combat Tactics 120
Tactics Against Other Hackers 120
Deckers 120
Riggers 120
Technomancers 121
What They Will Do to Social People 121
What They Will Do to Physical
Combat Specialists 121
Specific Targets 122

KILL CODE >

KILL CODE

DOUBLE DECKER
It was an artist’s touch, really. Some coder had taken pleasure
in rendering a feature into the black IC as it came into full
resolution: a headman’s axe—notched, with the patina of dried
blood and imperfect steel.
The suppression her sprite had laid down was just about to
end, leaving the black IC to run active. Augur’s persona lay limp
in her lap. The two remaining security deckers and a host of IC
prepared to bring down the wrath of GOD upon her head.
Andrea smiled a monster’s smile. It was going to be a
slaughter.
Andrea learned very early on that she was a monster. She was
seven when they talked about virtua-kinetics. She was eight
when they were called terrorists. At ten and a half, she saw the
videos of children her age being vivisected. It was on all the
newstrids. They’ll wipe your data. They’ll hack into your mind.
They can kill you with a thought.
And they were right, mostly.
Unlike other monsters, she hadn’t hid in the shadows. She
had risen right in the middle of the bell curve. She excelled in
being so utterly plain that a career in market research was natural.
Because why not hide a needle in a haystack filled with
other needles?
The Big Smoke was living up to its name on the morning she
dropped into the National Gallery, an activity that sixty-three
percent of the sprawl’s population participated in at some
point of their lives. In spite of the fog, tasteful AR warned her
of street boundaries and politely offered directions to other attractions.
She’d considered taking pictures in Trafalgar square
with the used commlink that she’d picked up when it beeped
to tell her that “the taxi [which she hadn’t ordered] had arrived.”
She closed the commlink, tucked it in her new clutch purse, and
left it on the bench across from the fountains. Within an hour,
it would be swiped by an opportune thief, leaving a data trail
leading away from her.
Exiting the Westway, they pulled into an chop shop on the edge
of Westbourne Greene. The taxi parked itself beside a two-story
British icon. A smile snuck across her face as she stepped the
London taxi to look at the twin-floored crimson bus.
“You disapprove?” said Augur, fading into the virtual beside
her.
“Far from it Augur—I concur.” She ran her hand along the vehicle,
appreciating the machine as much as the strategy. “Spacious
enough to house the necessary equipment. Ubiquitous
enough to blend in. Rigger adapted, it provides us with mobility
when the GODs come looking. It makes us virtually invisible.”
“But only if you wear the hat,” quipped the ork wearing
a conductor’s uniform from the rear entrance of the bus. His
handshake was firm without being crushing. “Kefak ya helu,
Shell. I am Moharik, but my friends call me Ibraheem. Come
aboard.”
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
6 >> DOUBLE DECKER

BY TJ LACHLAN
While the downstairs was a perfect clone of any other bus,
the upstairs was not. AR displays chimed: “Welcome aboard
London public transit, chummer—stay calm and deck responsibly.”
Seats had been taken out in favor of a reclining chair with
restraints and what looked like the remains of a valkyrie pod in
which Augur’s body rested, his smile a streak of ivory across his
cream-coffee skin.
She’d barely had a training bra back when Augur and his
team had extracted her from Evo. That had been years ago,
leaving a debt she could never fully repay. He was older now;
so was she. Shell rested her hands on the pod, feeling the complexity
of the machine and the complexity of him. “Hello, Augur.
What are you running? I see your usual kit, but what’s this?”
She touched a module with autoinjectors.
“A way out. But before that, I have a gift that you may find
useful.” He indicated a long garment bag that had been lying
on the seat across from the Valkyrie unit. “Please, try it on.”
Moharik whistled as she opened the bag. “Lucky you. He
only got me the hat.”
“Well, at least it’s an accurate analogue,” she said. The wroughtiron
bars of the firewall pieced the virtual overcast above the
NeoNET–Mayfair host. The muslin dress with puffy sleeves was
a good period simulacrum of the host’s graphic protocols. Andrea—or
Shell, we she as known on the streets—fought the urge
to fidget with the Norwich shawl that fell across her shoulders,
secretly wishing she could adjust the Fresnel fabric catsuit that
Augur had bought her. It moved across her body in ways that
were uncomfortably “human.”
With it, however, she could see the variances in everything:
the pixilation in every icon, the subtle waves of resonance, the
virtual world reflected imperfectly in the “real.” Andrea could
understand Moharik in a way that made her like him more as he
doted on his drone while they sped around the London core.
The digital stripped away to the core. Here, he was neither Arab
nor ork. He was an entity of ones and zeros, and the data that
streamed from him was unpolluted by the preconceptions and
prejudices of a human world.
She could also see the subtle differences in the Augur of
then and the Augur of now, and the code that was not precisely
him. And she saw the core of him that was no longer there: the
swagger and braggadocio that had been consumed.
Augur rapped the fence lightly with his cane, listening to the
chime ringing like an old church bell. “It is formidable. But I am
confident that together we can penetrate it. Are you prepared?”
He straightened his top hat.
Nodding, she pinned a boutonniere to his lapel, tying the
weave to his persona. Her hands rested against his chest as she
fed resonance into him, boosting his cyberdeck beyond its performance
specifications. Once, twice, three times he struck. He
wedged his cane between the bars and levered it like a crowbar.
The bars bowed, and the two of them slipped inside.
>> DOUBLE DECKER

Lined with pictures of Various VPs and scientists rendered in
early Victorian style, the gallery wall of NeoNET office was
an exercise in tasteful aesthetics. Icons and personas ran
past and around them like ghosts: meatworld people working
late, their commlinks an active reflection of them in the
Matrix. There were few drones on the property slaved to the
security rigger’s pod in the C&C room, mostly variants on
the Ares Duelist armed with a payload of stun weapons and
gas grenades.
Augur tapped the portrait of the head of research, and a
backdoor in the architecture slid open. Virtual stairs led down,
confirming Andrea’s expectations about this data heist. They
weren’t heading into a lab; they were heading into a dungeon.
Empty cell-workstations with iron bars and devices best left to
the imagination supported a grim virtual motif.
While Shell dusted little webs of code that could lead back
to their bodies, Augur searched. “Here,” he said with confidence,
facing a wall behind which there was nothing but a symmetrical
datavoid. Nothing could be seen beyond it.
Seeing now that this was appropriate a dungeon as ever,
she nodded grimly. “We can’t crack an unconnected faraday
cage from the host.”
“You are correct. This is where we must rely on a like-minded
individual.”
The previous ten months at Mayfair had been hard on Melanie
Cotton. She had the unique quality of being entirely unaugmented,
which meant she was perfect for this role, but it also
led to many lonely graveyard shifts and no social life.
When she’d been given a long weekend off a few months
ago, she’d jumped at the chance to live a little. She’d hit the novacoke
and the clubs hard, which is where she fell for his ivory
smile and skin the color of lightly creamed coffee. The night
had been a blur of bliss and whatever else they’d injected. Salacious
screams had woken her neighbors—repeatedly.
In the morning, she watched his magnificent form as he
slipped on his briefs. With an unabashedly wicked smile, she
murmured languidly, “Mmmm, you were just what I needed.”
“So were you,” Augur smiled back. Melanie never even
asked his name, but that didn’t matter. She knew she would
carry the memory of the night for the rest of her life.
The icon of Melanie’s commlink stopped outside the faraday
box as her meat body moved inside.
“We have approximately four minutes before access,” Augur
commented as Shell scrubbed as much of the traceable
data from her as possible while they waited. She then moved
to Augur, brushing the bits of code off him with an odd air of
domesticity. “I need to know something. I need to know I can
trust you.” The last syllable emphasized with a note of finality.
“I could trust Augustus Charles Ames, but there isn’t enough
of him left in there for me to make a substantive assessment. I
need to know I can trust what you are.”
Augur froze, in only the way a being of pure data could.
“When did you discover that …”
“… that you had overwritten him just like you’d overwritten
this girl? A few months ago, his—your—behavior began to be
inconsistent. It showed in our training. Augur taught me how
to hide; you were honing me into a weapon of specific design.
For this.”
“I have no intent …”
“I know you have no intention of killing me,” she said. “I
need to know that I can count on you not to give in to human
foolishness while we are doing this run. I need you to be cold.
Logical. Calculating. Ruthless. I need you to be the kind monster
you trained me to be. Can you do that?”
A light shone in through the darkness, cutting the answer
short. A jacketed guard holding a lantern started to probe the
alcoves: patrol IC, woefully timing for a routine inspection.
She popped her parasol and squeezed tightly against Augur
underneath it. Resonance pattered like rain, drenching them in
nonsense. Everywhere it touched, their forms faded to transparency.
This close to his code, she could feel the human left in
him. The way he moved his arm around her as his configurator
switched to maximize their encryption algorithms. There was
nothing noble in the gesture, but her heart moved in a response
that was seventy-five percent flight-or-flight, and twenty-five
percent wildly inappropriate for this situation. Panicking, she
quietly chanted to herself, “I am thought. I am not my body.
My body is nothing but a shell. I am not the shell. I am not the
shell. I am …”
“Andrea. Andrea Schell. Schelly …?” Her name. Augur’s
name for her. Not the Augur who’d taught her to fight, but the
Augur who’d taught her to fear.
“Augur?” The tone was almost childlike. Weak.
“Your veil was adequate. We have not been discovered.”
She’d closed her eyes. Why’d she done that? She felt so foolish.
Closing her eyes would not stop what was coming. The
IC had not blinked or wavered. How she wished she could be
free of that humanness. As the wall behind into the faraday lab
fell away, Shell sought to find that cold certainty that she had
known as a child that would enable her to be the monster she
needed to be. Looking inside, she found it.
Being fashioned in tones of antiseptic white and grey didn’t
make the lab any less of a dungeon. She saw Monad consciousnesses,
e-ghosts and AI pinned like butterflies as razors of data
cut across their eyeballs. Code leaked from them like blood
from still-living corpses.
Monsters. They were all monsters.
Spheres of rotating theorems manifested into existence
beside her; expressions of how she defined her world: Regression,
Deviation, Mean. The sprites followed behind her in
train as she bent to mark the warden program. Databombs lay
beneath each exam table connected to a firewalled hub. Each
had to be individually disarmed. Too many—too many and not
enough time.
As patrol IC glided back into the room, Shell knew there
were more important things to focus on. It never had the
chance to mark her as Augur spiked it from behind.
“Regression!” The lights flickered and equations blurred as
the crack sprite suppressed the host’s response. It bought them
time from the IC, but not from the spiders that were already
coming.
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
8 >> DOUBLE DECKER

“Fraggit, what is going on down there?” griped the building’s
security rigger to the spiders. “I’ve got unregistered data entities
running through the host. IC is compiling slower that drek”
“We’ve got a virtual intrusion on the advanced security labs
BuildSec. Confirm at least one technomancer and his sprites,
maybe more. Datasamples are being released. I repeat, samples
are escaping!”
“That faraday lab has no connection to the host.”
“Someone must have jury-rigged something.”
“Shit. Logs only show that the server tech should be doing
maintenance down there. She must have connected them,”
BuildSec confirmed. “I’m sending two squads.”
“Don’t pull the plug until we give you the green,” yelled the
decker. “You pull, and we’re all dumpshocked to death.”
“Affirmative,” he responded.
Switching channels, he addressed the security team. “Build-
Sec to teams Bravo and Charlie. You are to secure the server
room and immediately sever any cables you see leaving the
faraday cage. Confirm?”
“Bravo Charlie confirms BuildSec. Over.”
The deckers had their orders and he had his. His had included
the words “at all costs.”
Materializing one after the other, the spiders came in fast—five
in total. The IC that followed rendered at a glacial pace, black
boots falling into place pixel by pixel. Shell released one AI, a
red ball of angry data with a view to a kill. Free of its restraints,
it surged toward the nearest persona like a rabid dog. And like a
dog, it was put down without thought or mercy. But it gave time
for her fault sprite and Augur to drive two spikes deep into the
first decker’s persona.
A data spike struck Augur squarely in the chest, his boutonniere
exploding in a shower of petals. Unfazed, he stuck
back, splitting his attack and driving code into two others. All
the while the IC continued to grow, rendered now up to their
waists.
She worked furiously, throwing marks on everything, deckers
and devices alike. Locks popped, and disembodied formed
struggled, shambled, or flew from their shackles and through
the physical bridge to the host. Few were in any condition to
fight; none had the energy. Some would make it out. But that
physical bridge was their weakness—burned, they would be
dumped, and this would all be for naught.
The meat was coming. Shell saw the bounce of their icons
as they moved in the physical. She pulled sprites away from Augur’s
defense, leaving it to a death sentence. “Deviation—ataxia
protocol. Mean—assist!”
With abandon, the machine sprite began to wreak merry
havoc with the host, with blaring alarms, locking elevators and
pressure doors, engaging fire suppression systems, and alerting
emergency services. Threading the resonance, Shell weaved
out a hand to reach for the overwhelmed rigger. Seizing control,
she issued a quick command before bricking the rig.
She felt her sprites dying as she materialized back in
the faraday lab, hands still twitching from the fade and effort.
Databombs had exploded. Noise was everywhere.
Augur’s persona lay limp on the floor, dead or nearly so
from biofeedback. Pulling him close to her, she reached into
his code, hoping the Coriolis form could send enough of the
Monad back to their bus. As she held the weave, she looked up,
seeing the three remaining deckers and the IC that had finally
compiled.
She smiled a monster’s smile.
The headman’s axe came down and split the NeoNET spider’s
body from collar to sternum. Again there was pandemonium.
IC tore into spiders and devices alike, misreading any marks
the spiders hadn’t bothered to clean off. Spiders screamed, and
meat died. “BuildSec, what is going on up there? BuildSec!”
Tarred and link-locked, spiders were suddenly trapped in a fight
against their own tools. “Reboot! Reboot! We’ve got to get out
of here.”
Shell looked at him. “Don’t hold your breath.”
The decker looked at her, puzzled, before he began a very
real and physical cough. He stumbled to the floor from non-lethal
countermeasures in NeoNET’s drones that Shell had deployed
in their control room.
“I meant that literally.”
“How are we doing, Moharik?!” she yelled as she logged back
into the real world, resetting her persona and clearing any
marks.
“Mashalla woman! I thought you were going to be quiet.
All of London is rushing to see what you have done.” It was
true. London Fire, Medical, and Police were all responding to
the alert from the Mayfair branch; GridGuide said that traffic
was snarled in a two-kilometer radius around the tower. She
smiled at the live newsfeed of NeoNET HTR vehicles trying to
circumvent a firetruck, two ambulances, and a crowd of rubberneckers.
“How is Augur?”
She laid her hand against his metal coffin, hoping that she’d
been able to save enough of him. There was something in there,
still processing, perhaps enough to—wait. There was a mark on
his data “Shit! We’ve been tagged.”
She followed the icon back to its source, a black SUV with
flashing yellow lights for whom traffic was pulling aside. It
wasn’t running silent. GOD did not run silent. “They have our
location and speed. They don’t have our vehicle,” she said,
scrubbing the mark from Augur’s meat-corpse.
“What do you advise Shell?”
“Drive normally. I’ve got this.”
Cars whipped through her digital body as Shell stepped out of
the bus. An armored SUV bore down on her with murderous
intent, but she felt no touch of fear.
How could she when they had left her with so many weapons?
Cars and lories whose operators had slaved them to Grid-
Guide. Dozens of drones moving on pitiful dog-brains Reaching
deep, she grabbed the traffic signal and held it as it burned
red. Held it as traffic progressed. Held it as people crossed.
Held it as override codes burned her fingers. Held it as brakes
squealed. Held it as people screamed. Held it as metal deformed
and meat was sheered from flesh.
Andrea held it and watched with cold eyes. All her focus
was on saving the life of a dead man.
>> DOUBLE DECKER

KILL CODE
SO YOU WANT
TO BE A HACKER
MATRIX 101
DRACONIC NETWORKING
POSTED BY: SLAMM-0!
“All the Matrix is a stage, and all the deckers, technomancers,
agents, sprites, and AI merely players.”
—Unknown decker
> You’re all gonna get a kick out of this. Last year on March 7, a
new dragon awakened and revealed itself in New Orleans.
Well, not technically in New Orleans, but in the swamp
surrounding the Crescent City. This dragon, an adult sea
dragon by some reports, has named itself Terasca, and
it wasted no time in demanding the locals bow and pay
homage. It didn’t take long for Perianwyr, who happened to
be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, to talk the new dragon
down and explain the way of the world. Since then, Terasca
has stayed a bit out of sight, although it purchased a local
plantation and has hired a small army of employees to do
Ghost-knows-what. I couldn’t help myself from snooping
around in the plantation’s host, and you’ll never guess what
I stumbled on. Terasca’s patience with underlings seems to
be lacking, so while attempting to explain the Matrix to
the new dragon, one of the dragon’s flunkies got whacked
for questioning why Terasca wasn’t picking the concepts
up quicker. After they scraped his remains off the ceiling,
a certain Jolene Price (who narrates the piece below)
was put in charge of explaining the Matrix to the dragon.
The following is Jolene’s side of that meeting. Obviously,
we can’t hear what the dragon is saying because it’s
communicating telepathically. What follows is a Matrixfor-dummies
(or dragons) that is quite well-informed, with
some knowledge that is more widespread in the shadows
than in the real world. There are also hints of what we
might expect from this swamp dragon. Enjoy reading and
offering commentary.
> Slamm-0!
> I knew this one. Take caution dealing with this New
Orleans dragon.
> Orange Queen
THE PRECURSORS OF
OUR CURRENT MATRIX
Powerful Terasca, my understanding is you wish
these briefs to be limited to only the most necessary
details, so permit me to begin straightaway.
The Matrix began in earnest when, in the 1990s,
something called the internet took over two-way
telecommunications. Prior to the internet, telephones
(voices converted to electrical signals
and transmitted through wires [example shown])
were the dominant form of information exchange
over long distances.
Computers—complex calculating machines
powered by electricity—were first operated by
punching patterns of holes in paper cards, later
by entering complex codes using keyboards,
forearm-length devices with alphanumeric keys.
Computers became popularized when two corporations,
Apple and IBM, adopted a graphic user
interface to aid navigation and use. Humans began
using a haptic device called a mouse, along
with the a keyboard, for nearly unlimited aplications
while the computers interpreted complex
numbers and codes, and then displayed them on
screens as easy-to-understand pictures and icons.
In time, nearly all computers worldwide began
to connect and network together, and the worldwide
internet was born. By 2007, over ninety-seven
percent of long-distance communications were
handled this way. With nearly unlimited information
being transmitted instantaneously, individuals
called hackers grew in influence. Hackers exposed
and exploited security flaws in the internet
for their own purposes. Destructive coding known
as computer viruses, used to attack computers’
code, spread as a tool among hacker communities.
As the internet grew, so did the malignancy
and impact of these viruses.
In Chicago in 2018, ESP Systems’ Dr. Hosato
Hikita created the first generation of Artificial
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
10 SO YOU WANT TO BE A HACKER >>

Sensory Induction System Technology, or ASIST,
also known as simsense. This technology was able
to induce artificial sensations directly from electronics
into metahuman brains. Of course, these
sensations were crude, but they would not stay at
that level for long.
> What she doesn’t mention is Hikita used the research of
Dr. Ronald Thomas Halberstam, a colleague of Hikita’s at
ESP, to complete his own work. Halberstam was mapping
the human brain’s thought processes, trying to create AI.
> Icarus
In the 2020s, building off Hikita’s work, Sony
Cybersystems, Fuchi Industrial Electronics, and
RCA-Unisys each developed prototype cyberterminals,
room-sized devices allowing users to jack
in, or directly interface their central nervous systems
with the world data network, using a cybernetic implant
called a datajack. Seeing an opportunity to
gain an edge in the escalating cyber-warfare game,
the United States government created a special cyber-security
task force called Echo Mirage. These
cyber-commandos were given the latest cyberterminal
technology, but what they actually were created
to accomplish remains vague.
> Those early cyberterminals inflicted major
psychological stress on the early Echo Mirage team.
That’s why the U.S. government developed a regimen
of drugs and computer programs, called Psychotrope,
to help condition their minds.
> Glitch
Computer viruses continued to pose ever
greater danger to the world’s economy and information
network, but nothing prepared the world
for the Crash Virus of 2029. On February 8, 2029,
computer systems worldwide were attacked by a
virus of unknown origin and unprecedented power.
It crashed systems, wiped data, and destroyed
hardware around the globe. Within months, the virus
collapsed the world’s data network. The results
were devastating: governments fell, corporations
were destroyed, and the world’s economy was on
the brink of collapse. At the onset of the Crash, the
US government mobilized Echo Mirage to stop
the chaos. Using the still-experimental cyberterminals,
Echo Mirage fought the Crash Virus on
the internet, experiencing, through simsense, the
electronic battle of warring code as if it were real;
they felt pain when attacked, and when defeated
in the cyber-realm, their bodies shut down. Nearly
all members of that first Echo Mirage team were
killed in this manner.
> This is pretty good, but there’s a lot of missing info here.
For the sake of posterity, let’s set the record straight. The
Crash started with a corp called Acquisition Technologies.
AT was owned by Thomas Roxborough, and it employed
Lucien Cross and retired USAF Major David Gavilan and,
both of whom would go on to greater things. Roxborough
had his sights set on taking over rival company Gossamer
Threads, owned in part by the great dragon Dunkelzahn.
Never one to shy away from malfeasance, Roxy ordered
his hackers and programmers, including Gavilan, to
create a virus designed to destroy Gossamer Threads’
network. Roxy tested his virus on a company called Effexx
Studios, and after it was successful in destroying Effexx, it
destroyed the internet.
> Bull
Desperate, the U.S. government recruited another
group of specialists for Echo Mirage, this time
including artists, programmers, even IRS agents
and other out-of-the-box thinkers. After training,
this new group was armed with a new generation
of cyberterminals small enough to fit on desks and
sent into the internet to combat the virus. After
only eighteen minutes, four of them were dead,
casualties of the virus’ deadly biofeedback attacks.
As they battled the virus over the next few months,
this new Echo Mirage slowly and painfully gained

KILL CODE As the Crash cascaded through the world’s networks,
Dunkelzahn convinced Gavilan to join Gossamer
Threads. When Big D learned Gavilan helped create
the virus, he urged him to join Echo Mirage to redeem
himself. Also, in the time between the deaths of the first
team and the next thirty-two, Echo Mirage discovered
how to weaponize Psychotrope and use it as an antivirus
against the Crash Virus.
> Bull
> Enter: AI. At some point during the Crash Virus
conflict, the Psychotrope anti-virus’ incredibly complex
programming was sparked to consciousness through
its intimate connections to the Echo Mirage team. Once
the Crash Virus was allegedly destroyed, Psychotrope’s
code was decommissioned, and it lay dormant in an
old military server for years until the hardware was
purchased by Fuchi.
> The Smiling Bandit
> So who were the seven survivors of Echo Mirage? Always
wondered.
> Borderline
> Everyone has. But nailing down the seven has proven
tricky. Gavilan survived and founded Gavilan Ventures.
Gavilan himself disappeared around ’32, though.
> Mr. Bonds
> Ken Roper and Michael Eld survived and founded a corp
called Matrix Systems.
> 0rkCE0
> A PI named Dirk Montgomery suggested a dwarf woman
known as “Buddy,” who was a researcher at the University
of Washington, survived Echo Mirage and had some
serious emotional challenges as a result. Regardless, she
became a wiz decker, but died in ’52 when she was fried
by Yamatetsu black IC.
> Butch
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
12 SO YOU WANT TO BE A HACKER >>

KILL CODE Almost thirty years ago, an upload on the Shadowland
BBS outed Keith “The Suit” Hannigan and Erica Rutledge
as two more. And then there’s Alice, but she doesn’t count.
> Hexatite
> Rutledge was one of the world’s first shadowrunners.
She went by the name Static. She confirmed Buddy and
Hannigan as Echo Mirage colleagues.
> The Smiling Bandit
> Okay, blokes, I’ll bite. Who’s Alice?
> Chainmaker
> Alice Haeffner. “Late” wife of UCAS President Kyle
Haeffner. She was killed fighting the Crash Virus, or so it
was thought. Her body was revived and kept in a coma,
but her consciousness was separated from her body by
the Crash Virus. Rumor was she continued to exist in the
Matrix as an e-ghost, dwelling in some creepy virtual
Matrix space called Wonderland.
> Bull
> Listen, Bull. You’ve been making some pretty fraggin’
far-out accusations. First, Thomas Roxborough may
be my ex-husband and I may hate him, but this is the
second time you’ve suggested he was responsible for
the Crash. And a lot of the info-dropping here is stuff
no one’s ever confirmed. Are you going to cite sources
this time?
> KAM
> I guess so. Can’t really hurt anything now. Icarus
doesn’t make a habit of giving away info, but lots of
this comes from him. He’s forgotten more about the
Matrix than most of us know. Pay him enough, and
he’ll tell you all sorts of secrets. The rest is mostly
from FastJack. Before he left JackPoint due to his
condition, he slotted me a huge file with everything
from theories on Saeletra to real names and locations
of old Shadowland posters; stuff corps would level
mountains for. That’s why I don’t share it. But the
above is ancient history by now.
> Bull
> I do like cred. Yeah, I got the chip truth on Halberstam,
Alice, and Echo Mirage. But it ain’t free.
> Icarus
> Nobody’s heard from Alice in a while … also, she
doesn’t count as surviving. So that’s only six. You forgot
Johnny Clean.
> Plan 9
> Oh, after fifty years, you’ve finally found the answer? Way
to go! Did the unholy offspring of a Resonance-infused
monad and the e-ghost of Dunkelzahn tell you this?
> Snopes
> Nope. I met someone who was pretty sure they heard
him talking about it in Hong Kong. Or was it Berlin? No,
Seattle!
> Plan 9
> I ran with a pretty wiz decker for a few months back in ‘71
who swore one of the survivors was their dad.
> Hard Exit
> Yeah, I’ve heard that a few times myself from a few newb
deckers trying to score an in to the biz. Bottom line is, you
all don’t know for sure who the survivors were, do you?
> Borderline
> No.
> KAM
> Not really.
> Bull
> It’s hard to be sure.
> Snopes
> Nope.
> The Smiling Bandit
Second-generation cyberterminals began to
gain popularity following the defeat of the Crash
Virus. In 2032, the Corporate Court spearheaded
a plan to rebuild the worldwide information network
that was shattered by the Crash Virus. Using
immersive virtual-reality technologies, this new
network incorporated a three-dimensional graphic
user interface, much like the old internet used
a two-dimensional interface. The network was
fully compatible with emerging cyberterminal
technology, and it became known as the Matrix.
Matrix-friendly, third-generation cyberterminals,
fitting easily on desktops, became available to
consumers in 2036. Just a few years later, Fuchi
Incorporated hosted the Universal Matrix Specifications
Conference, meeting for three months to
determine a set of standards for Matrix programming.
By 2050, cyberterminals were available as
small as keyboards and were dubbed cyberdecks.
The portability of these cyberterminals posed security
issues for corporations. To the corporations,

KILL CODE Matrix Systems, founded by former Echo Mirage alums
Ken Roper and Michael Eld, created the first portable
cyberdeck called the Portal. Sadly, all that research was
lost just before both died in “accidents.” Matrix Systems
was bought out by Richard Villiers at Fuchi, and the
cyberdeck technology magically appeared again, released
as the first Fuchi cyberdeck.
> 0rkCE0
The 2050s were a decade of ongoing change
and discovery for the Matrix and those who accessed
it. First, rumors of Ultraviolet hosts persisted.
Hosts are virtual places on the Matrix, and Ultraviolet
hosts were so lifelike that when someone experienced
them in virtual reality, it was impossible
to tell cyberspace from reality, causing many to go
insane. However, the amount of processing power
required to maintain these hosts was prohibitive for
all but the most dedicated of corporations. The ability
to turn off safety measures while on the Matrix
also became a problem in many ways. The Matrix
protocols dictated that certain bottlenecks be put
in place to protect the metahuman mind from experiencing
the 3D nature of the Matrix too vividly.
Deckers found ways to turn these safety measures
off, however, by using “hot simsense” and allowing
them to move, think, and experience the Matrix on
a much more intense level. In exchange for putting
their mind in more peril through “hot sim,” they
found their ability to combat IC and navigate the
Matrix was enhanced as well.
Even more nefarious activities continued to
emerge as the Matrix developed. Halberstam’s
babies for example. In 2052, Dr. Ronald Halberstam,
previously of ESP, was found to be isolating
the brains of children from their bodies and raising
them completely in the virtual world of the Matrix.
Also during the 2050s, the first true artificial
intelligences (AI) were created. Or born. Depends
on who you talk to. Anyway, AI exist without any
physical bodies as self-aware and intelligent entities,
dwelling only in the electronic worlds of corporate
network hosts or the Matrix itself. Children
called Otaku appeared, who could access the
Matrix without a cyberdeck, using only datajacks
linked to their brains.
Soon, corporations began working on the next
steps for the worldwide Matrix. More than a few
tech-based corporations began making plans to
implement a wireless Matrix that would be able to
integrate the world’s devices without the need for
physical connections. In time, the Corporate Court
gathered Matrix security personnel from each
AAA megacorp and founded the Grid Overwatch
Division, typically referred to as GOD, tasked with
executing law enforcement for this confederation
of corporate fiefdoms.
In 2058, the AAA corporation Renraku Computer
Systems successfully captured an AI named
Morgan. Renraku went on to slice up and utilize
parts of her code to autonomously run their Seattle
Arcology, which housed more than 90,000
people. This new program gained its own form of
autonomy and began calling itself Deus. In 2059,
Deus took control of the Renraku Arcology and
closed it off from the outside world. Eventually,
Deus was defeated, and the Arcology shutdown
was lifted. The legacy of Deus did not end there,
however. In the early years of the 2060s, former
servants of Deus formed a strange alliance with a
doomsday cult known as Winternight. This partnership
culminated in a worldwide attack on November
2, 2064, aimed to destroy the world in its
current form. While much of the physical damage
was contained worldwide, the damage to the Matrix,
called Crash 2.0, left the worldwide network
in ruins. Early in 2065, the Second Universal Matrix
Conference introduced the wireless Matrix,
which became the new standard.
It was not long after this that the world was
introduced to technomancers, or virtuakinetic
metahumans, who could access the wireless
Matrix with only their brains, not unlike the earlier
Otaku, but without their wired connection. In
some ways, they are like dual-natured creatures.
Technomancers view the world in augmented reality
by default, with Matrix data overlaying their
vision similar to the way the Awakened perceive
astrally.
WHAT IS THE MATRIX?
On January 1, 2075, the current version of the
Matrix was revealed. Danielle de la Mar, notorious
hacker adversary, proposed structures and
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
14 SO YOU WANT TO BE A HACKER >>

KILL CODE Poor Jolene sounds terrified. “Powerful Terasca,” “wise
Terasca,” does this dragon have an inferiority complex or
something?
> Borderline
> Well, we don’t really know much about Terasca, but they
don’t seem to be a great dragon, only an adult. Jolene
is most definitely afraid, given what happened to her
predecessor. But trust me, she’s being extremely well
taken care of for doing the work and peppering her words
with draconic flattery.
> Slamm-0!
At its most basic, the Matrix is the network
formed by every wired and wireless device on the
planet. This network draws computing power from
all of these devices and is thus capable of processing
nearly unlimited amounts of data almost
instantaneously. The connected nature of the Matrix
allows users to read messages, pay bills, and
communicate over any distance. It monitors individuals’
finances as well as the larger economy.
It handles utilities, manages traffic on city streets,
helps guns shoot more accurately, gives medkits
access to medical records, and even detects wear
and tear on clothing. It dominates nearly every
facet of everyday life, no matter who you are.
But this is only the surface. Just as magic can
affect everyday life but is a different experience
from entering the astral realm, entering the Matrix
itself through virtual reality is entirely different
from using a Matrix-connected device. Entering
the Matrix plunges you into a virtual universe, a
shared consensual hallucination with every other
entity inside. Everything is rendered in incredible
detail powered by a century of digital graphics
innovation. Most of the time, users can tell the
difference between the Matrix world and the real
one, but not always—such is the sophistication of
the experience. It may be helpful to think of the
Matrix as a great ocean planet. The Matrix proper
is the water that defines the world. It touches everything
and connects the world together. It is the
medium through which we move from one place
to another. Users can fly, walk, or even swim within
it, travelling at nearly unlimited speed. While inside,
all interactions will be with icons, 3D digital
representations of the persons (personas), places
(hosts), and things (files and devices) of the Matrix.
Persons in the Matrix take a virtual form called
a persona. It is a person’s digital representation,
much in the same way that dual-natured creatures
have a physical and astral forms. A user’s persona
is tied inextricably to their brainwave patterns and
global metadata, so they are virtually impossible
to counterfeit, but more on that later. All around
you are the personas of other Matrix users. These
could be physical users of devices like legitimate
users or illegitimate deckers, the living personas
of technomancers, semi-autonomous servants
called sprites or agents created by other users, or
even AI. Due to the protocols which govern the
Matrix, personas can be customized, but they can
only appear as metahuman-sized objects, ranging
in size between a dwarf and a troll.
Floating alongside personas in the Matrix are
devices. Any real-world devices connected to the
Matrix, which in 2080 is nearly all of them, also
appear as icons. Regardless of their actual physical
size, devices in the Matrix almost always appear
smaller than personas.
Looming large over the vast ocean of the Matrix
are islands called hosts. In the Matrix, hosts
hover far above everything else. Just like climbing
out of the water onto land, climbing out of the true
Matrix into a host is a transition. Inside hosts, physics
are experienced however they are programed
to behave. Most mimic real-world physics for the
sake of ease of use, but this is not always the case.
A host, sometimes inaccurately called a node
due to old habits, is the “where” of the Matrix. Matrix
protocols are very specific as to the definition
of what a host is, and yet there are Matrix places
called “hosts” that do not quite conform to these
Matrix protocols or definitions.
> This new Matrix tried to completely replace devicebased
hosts with virtual hosts, which have no physical
counterpart. The exceptions are outdated hosts that
existed prior to 2075 and rogue hosts; they still appear as
hosts in the Matrix, despite the Grid Overwatch Division’s
strict definitions.
> Orbital DK
> True. When the term was first coined, a host was the
illusion of a 3D place within any network. Paranoid corps

KILL CODE Bull
Besides devices, there are other icons that can
be interacted with on the Matrix, known as files.
Files can be as simple as raw data like electronic
mail or accounting details, but they may also be as
sophisticated as programs that perform incredibly
complex functions.
The previously mentioned Grid Overwatch Division,
or GOD, rules the Matrix ocean from far above
it. GOD has physical servers located on a satellite
orbiting the Earth, and in the Matrix, they are unseen,
and keep watch far above even the hosts,
only making their presence known when necessary
to wield their power against a rule-breaker.
Yes, great one—they are very much like dragons
flying high over their domains.
If GOD watches far above the Matrix sea, the
Foundation is what exists below it. Most users do
not know this Foundation exists, let alone know
what it is. Access to the Foundation is no small
feat. Pushing our ocean metaphor, the Foundation
is the ground on which the ocean of the Matrix
lies and the stuff of which hosts are made. Hosts
are connected to the Foundation via a “foundation”
particular to that host. In this way, hosts are
a bit like continents. Accessing a host’s foundation
is perilous to say the least, even for members of
GOD, who are given hazard pay even to perform
the most routine maintenance there. This information
is not common knowledge, however. Most
corporations desire the populace to believe GOD
is in complete control over the Matrix and is able
to control it. This belief is dubious.
> She’s right. What we’ve learned about the Foundation
these last few years certainly dispels any notion that
GOD controls it. They may have got the ball rolling, but
it is definitely beyond their control. In fact, I don’t think
anyone has control of it anymore. I’ve come to believe
that even if all the devices in the world were shut down
simultaneously, the Matrix would continue to exist.
> /dev/grrl
> Bulldrek. That doesn’t make any sense. Something
can’t be one hundred percent virtual without a physical
component. That isn’t how physics work. Go drunk, /dev/,
you’re home.
> Clockwork
> I’ve come to believe the same, actually. It is a bit unsettling,
but it appears the Foundation of the Matrix is far more
than we thought it was. When the new Matrix first hit, no
one knew about the Foundation. I believe GOD didn’t even
really know about it. What I mean is, of course they knew
how to use it to build hosts, but they didn’t know how it
worked or how “foundational” to the new Matrix it really
was. All they knew is that Danielle de la Mar and her team
created something special, it worked, and it was very
good at protecting corporate assets. They were willing to
look past anything else. It wasn’t until their technicians
started dying during routine jobs that they began to ask
questions, and by the time they did, it was too late to do a
damn thing about it.
> Netcat
> The truth is much darker and much more dangerous as
well. Danielle de la Mar’s hatred of technomancers is
well known. What isn’t public knowledge is that back
in the early 2070s, de la Mar rubbed shoulders with
anyone she could find who was doing experiments
on us. When she was given the contract to oversee
the creation of the new Matrix, she had her fingers in
more than just the protocol pie. The corporations used
double talk and technobabble to explain how the new
Matrix was going to be hardware-free and completely
virtual, but the physics just don’t work out. But de la
Mar made it happen. She took what she learned from
the experiments and used that to torture and forcibly
network a gestalt of over one hundred technomancers,
which she used as the “foundation” for her virtual
Matrix. The building blocks she used to create hosts
and data trails were the souls being sucked out of
those hundred. When she presented a proof of concept
to GOD and the rest of the Corporate Court, they were
impressed and all pretended like they understood it,
so as not to admit a virtual nobody like de la Mar was
sharing knowledge that was beyond them.
> Puck
> Drek. Those are potentially damning charges. You’re
saying that every time we use the Matrix, we are mindfragging
a hundred technos somewhere? That doesn’t sit
well with me.
> Bull
> I bet it sits just fine with Clockwork. That drek-hole is
probably getting off now at the thought that using the
Matrix hurts technomancers.
> Slamm-0!
> Wrong. The idea of the Matrix being built on actual
technomancer mind patterns means I don’t want to be
swimming in the Matrix if the whole thing is a demi-
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
16 SO YOU WANT TO BE A HACKER >>

KILL CODE Clockwork
> Well, fortunately or unfortunately, you don’t have to
worry about that. It’s been years since de la Mar intended
to start unplugging the One Hundred to see if the new
Matrix would work without them. Instead, she discovered
that all the technomancers who acted as the foundation
for her beloved Matrix were dead. You’re probably asking
yourself how the Matrix is still functioning, then. Follow
me. You know how Resonance and Dissonance wells have
been popping up, seemingly at random, throughout the
Matrix for years now?
> Puck
> Puck, you can’t be suggesting what I think you are.
> Netcat
> I can’t help but notice Jolene doesn’t mention Resonance,
Dissonance, or Resonance realms to Terasca.
> Bull
> Probably because suggesting the idea that there are
sources of information and power that dragons have no
way to access is likely to get Ms. Price eaten.
> Glitch
> Back on topic: The source of the Resonance and
Dissonance wells was the One Hundred. Their connection
to the Resonance established a permanent link to the
Resonance realms, permeating the Foundation. Once
established, the link provided unlimited processing and
storage power for the Foundation, and thus, the Matrix.
In return, all data from the Matrix bled through into the
Resonance realms. When the technos died, whether they
had a hand in their own demise or not, the foundation
persisted, and it is now a hybrid space between the sum
of all metahuman digital data, the Resonance realms,
and Dissonance realms as well. No one controls it,
although GOD is still able to manipulate the top layers.
> Puck
> I’m gonna need some time to process all of that.
> /dev/grrl
> Likewise.
> Netcat
> Me too.
> Bull
> Me three.
> Slamm-0!
The Matrix depths can only be accessed
through grids. Grids, to conclude our nautical
metaphor, function a bit like patrons for long voyages.
When sailors began exploring the Earth’s
oceans in earnest, most did so with the patronage
of wealthy nations. They bore the flags of
their patron nations and were at the whims of
their patron’s desires, but also were given access
to supplies and finances they would be otherwise
unable to obtain. Grids function much the same. In
order to reach the Matrix, you must choose a grid
through which to access it, much like cell phone
carriers in the Fifth World. No grid, no Matrix access.
There is a public grid, but using it means you
have slow speeds, noise, and other built-in hurdles
to overcome when trying to access information.
Yes, the corporations planned it that way. Most
major cities also have their own local grids, offering
access only in that location, while the ten major
megacorporations have their own, worldwide
grids. Aside from the public grid, whichever grid
is chosen, the difference in experience is largely
cosmetic. Accessing the Matrix through the Ares
grid will flood your vision with promotions of the
newest Ares-produced items, while using the Seattle
Grid would likely do the same with political
advertisements or local restaurant ads. There is
one large difference between the grids, however.
Each grid is overseen by its own sub-division of
GOD called a demiGOD. In our example above,
being caught while breaking into a host on the
Ares grid will bring Ares’ demiGOD division down
on you, while New Orleans has its own demiGOD
division whose jurisdiction only covers the city.
A LOOK
FROM THE INSIDE
While the ocean world is a helpful metaphor for
the structure of the Matrix, it is less helpful when
describing the way the Matrix actually appears to
those inside it. Glorious Terasca, it is my understanding
that through your commlink and eyepiece,
you have already experienced the Matrix
to some extent. While the visual overlays provided
by your eyepiece give you some hint of
what is possible through the Matrix, it is a limited
experience, akin to astral perception versus
actually entering astral space and exploring the
metaplanes. While you were able to view the
connected wireless devices all around you, see
in-depth analysis of weather, local politics, and

KILL CODE >

KILL CODE I wonder how a newly Awakened dragon heard that last
bit. It can’t be easy to go to sleep an apex predator and
wake up 5,000 years later as a side note.
> Chainmaker
> I don’t think anyone considers dragons to be side notes,
especially ones who actually own the corporations Jolene
here is talking about.
> Cayman
On the inside, hosts can appear however the
owners desire, and internal physics are likewise
set by the owners. Many times, physical locations
like taverns and dance clubs appear in the Matrix
as exact replicas of their real-world counterparts.
Other hosts, like those for online shopping, may
appear as an endless vertical shopping mall where
users are given shopping bags of endless capacity
and are allowed to fly from storefront to storefront.
Default VR settings filter out other visual stimuli
as well, such as data trails, marks, and files, unless
a user has a particular reason for wanting to
see them. Data trails are visual representations
of files, programs, and other data that move constantly
through the Matrix. If filters did not turn
these streams off, nothing else would be visible
except for an all-encompassing data stream.
Files in the Matrix are small and most often take
a form that suggests their function. A collection of
stories for example may appear as a book, while
a song file may appear as a music note or music
instrument.
A mark is a Matrix Authentication Recognition
Key. It is a sort of virtual brand that identifies
legitimate users. When I was a child, my
mother used to write the names of her children
on the toys we were allowed to play with. If we
were caught playing with a toy that did not have
our name somewhere on it, we were punished.
That is similar to how marks function. If a user
does not have their unique marks on a device,
they are denied access to the device. Users customize
the look of their own marks, but they are
invisible to other users by default. More crudely,
it is similar to how certain animals mark territory
with urine.
THE ILLEGAL USE
OF THE MATRIX
While we are on the topic of marks …
Oh. Yes, of course. Please ask whatever you’d
like, great one.
I’m sorry, I just want to make sure I hear you
correctly; you want to know how to steal things on
the Matrix?
No, no, no, great one, that is not a problem at
all. That is just not the first question I anticipated.
Yes, of course it is because I am a lesser being.
The answer is yes, you can steal things, and
yes, the Matrix is where most people keep their
wealth.
Ah. I see. Well, as I mentioned, marks are necessary
to perform any action on a device in the
Matrix. In order to interact with a device, the user
must have from one to three marks on the device.
The exception to this rule is if a user is the device’s
owner, which allows them to take any action with
the device they desire. Once marks exist, users
can interact with devices in all manner of ways,
such as editing, copying, deleting, or sending files,
controlling a device, or sending a message. Getting
a mark on a device is usually something that
is done by a device’s owner. Like my mother in the
example above, the owner writes marks onto devices—one
mark for a guest user, two for a user,
three for an administrator.
To now directly address your questions, attempting
to write your own mark on a device
without being invited to do so is considered
an illegal and hostile action, and therefore garners
the attention of GOD. This is where hackers
come in. So-called deckers and lawless technomancers
ply their trade by illegally marking devices
through stealthy or brutish means, manipulating
the device for their whims, and jacking
out before the authorities are able to converge
on them.
Yes, there are groups of hackers, although the
most successful either work alone or are part of
larger organized crime syndicates.

KILL CODE >

KILL CODE Anyone else thinking we should nickname this wyrm “the
Crime Dragon?”
> Slamm-0!
> Yup.
> Netcat
> Oh yes.
> Plan 9.
> I’m agreeable to this.
> Snopes
Let me think a moment. Yes. There are a few
more things worth mentioning before I begin research
on those items. First, when accessing information
or otherwise using the Matrix across different
grids, Matrix protocols enforce automatic
and arbitrary throttling of data speeds. This can
be frustrating for hackers who wish to hop across
grids regularly. Thankfully, there has been a recent
development within the decker community that
helps alleviate this. Exploits and backdoors of unknown
origin have been slowly leaking into the
hands of hackers.
The most common backdoor discovered this
way is the virtual collapse of cross-grid throttling.
Only the poorest deckers operating on the public
grid are slowed down anymore by cross-grid throttling.
The public grid remains inefficient and full of
noise by design, and none but the most desperate
deckers use it. Other exploits include being able
to access certain devices with fewer marks than
normally required, or bypassing marks completely
when attempting specific hacks. No one knows just

KILL CODE Thanks for the temporary invite, Bull. In return for the
info, I’ll drop some on you as well. You all know that
near-legendary decker called Dodger, right? I know
it is counterintuitive, but he worked closely with the
Corporate Court to implement the new Matrix protocols.
Lots of chummers called him a sellout. But whatever
his reasons for working with the corps, he must have
been keeping his roots in mind. Dodger seeded the new
Matrix with numerous backdoors and exploitable security
vulnerabilities, presumably to help him in whatever
“quest” he was embarking on. Recently, some of those
have been seeing widespread use. I don’t know if that was
what Dodger had in mind, but either way, raise a glass
sometime to that obnoxious elf.
> Facet
ICONS
An icon is the virtual representation of a person, place,
or thing in the Matrix. In broad strokes, personas are Matrix
people, hosts are Matrix places, and devices and files are
Matrix things. PANs and marks also technically have icons,
but only ever appear on other icons.
PERSONAS
A persona is the digital avatar of a Matrix user. When
using a device, a persona merges with the device’s icon and
presents only as the persona’s avatar. When a persona is
created, the avatar is registered in the Matrix’s Foundation.
It draws on vital statistics, biological records, and brainwave
and usage patterns, and it is constantly updated with global
metadata collected from every Matrix device worldwide.
Without a dangerous dive into the Matrix Foundation, personas
are impossible to counterfeit. A persona is logged in whenever
the user is online with a device capable of running a persona.
Global positioning data, incredibly advanced passkeys,
biorhythm data, and past Matrix history all combine to virtually
eliminate false logins.
Technomancers do not need devices to engage the
Matrix. They have icons called living personas that are also
registered with the Foundation. Agents, sprites, and other
autonomous and semi-autonomous icons, like AI, are also
present as personas.
> Dodger? He’s better than FastJack, right? That’s the rumor
on the Seattle scene.
> Borderline
> Girl, there was a time you’d be booted from JackPoint
for sayin’ that. But, no. Most of us don’t think so. Dodger
spends too much of his time on other pursuits to be the
best.
> Bull
Yes, great one. I will return shortly with the information
you requested. It was my great honor to
have been in your presence.
MANUAL OF
THE MATRIX
It’s 2080. Hackers are more valuable than gold.
Not that people in the Sixth World use gold as
much as they used to, but you get the point. Everyone,
everyone, is more effective with a good
hacker watching their back, no matter who they
are. Hackers bust through corp firewalls to get
you the paydata. Hackers track down that fugitive
Mr. Johnson is paying you to retrieve. Hackers
eject the clips from the guns pointed at your face.
Hackers make all the street lights turn green for
the getaway car. Hackers are the team’s guardian
angel of overwatch, spotting and defusing problems
well before they can blow up in the team’s
face, and stacking the deck in their favor instead.
More importantly, they make their opposition
miserable while doing so.
But how does a hacker make that happen? Far
more detail on hacking, such as how to create a
hacker character, purchasing gear, and expanded
explanations of rules and terms can be found in
the Matrix section of the SR5 core rulebook (p.
214). But to get into the action as quick as possible,
read on. This section has a large number of
sidebars to make it easy to find information on a
particular topic.
MATRIX MAGIC
The Matrix, by way of oversimplification, is an
infinite virtual world created by the networking
of every connected device on the planet, which
somehow is more than the sum of its parts. Icons
of every person, place, or thing on the Matrix
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
22 SO YOU WANT TO BE A HACKER >>

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OWNERSHIP
Every device, persona, host, and file is owned by someone.
With ownership comes privileges. A Matrix object can only have
one owner, but there is no limit to the number of Matrix objects you
can own. The owner can always spot its property in the Matrix.
Owning an icon is basically like having four marks on it.
Ownership of a Matrix device is registered with both the device
and the Matrix grids, so changing ownership is a bit complicated.
The owner of an icon can legally transfer ownership to another
person in less than a minute. You can illegally change a device’s
owner with a Hardware toolkit and a Hardware + Logic [Mental] (24,
1 hour) Extended Test. Performing this test requires access to the
Matrix; a glitch results in the authorities being notified.
Ownership of an offline host is registered with the host itself and
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DIPS
& CHIPS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY: ESTABAN
Greetings JackPoint! I am Estaban, brother of Armand.
I operate Estaban’s Electronics Extravaganza
and welcome the opportunity to offer insight into
goods and services for such an esteemed clientele.
Introductions done—now let’s talk tech toys,
and not just those high-end cyberdecks and dinky
dongles people add on to get a little more function
out of their fancy form. I’m talking sweet toys
that can make a razorgirl grin ear to ear or get that
sly smirk out of your favorite face. Several pieces
here are R&D bits, but corps are tossing them at
the streets like candy on the parade route, while
others are new entries or my favorite model of a
toy everyone makes. Check the chatter box for
other folks’ views and see the little intro script for
my thoughts. Hit me with a PM for any orders;
I can fill them in most major runner sprawls in
a day or two, smaller spots usually take a week
or so, and anywhere else looks like a week minimum,
possibly up to a month. If I can’t get ya
gear in a lunar cycle, we’ll just call it a no-go until
you can crawl back toward civilization for half a
tic for pickup.
Shop and enjoy!
AMMO
We’ll start with my bestsellers, because just about
anyone can use a lead-slinger. Most of the rounds
listed have limits based on the slug size. Some
just can’t be miniaturized enough to be effective
in that little purple Tiffani you pack; others just aren’t
as effective when designed smaller. I’ll make
sure to keep that distinction clear below.
ZAPPER ROUNDS
Not to be confused with good ol’ Stick-n-Shock,
these rounds actually cause damage to electronic
systems, rather than the electronics themselves.
Using a mix of wireless data burst broadcasting
tech and dense IC coding, the round attacks the
object in the “Matrix.” Why the quotes? Glad you
asked, because early models were useless once
you shut the wireless off on your device. But
that’s not the case after the redesign. Now, as
long as your device is active and capable of accessing
the Matrix, even if the receiver is currently
shut down, the contact protocols in the rounds
do the job as long as you’re a good shot.
Here’s what I mean. Use these on someone actively
connected, hidden or not, and you can pretty
much hit anywhere on their person and something
is gonna get popped. The coding latches
onto the first device it can break through and then
folds and repeats inside, using its limited power to
pull off its effect. Mass effect versions that scramble
and frag up everything are in the works, but for
now you’ll only find that bit of gear terrorism over
in the grenades department.
Now, if you’re a solid shot, you can bullseye
something specific and you can pretty much guarantee
the code’s concentrated enough to drill into
that single piece. More than one decker has been
unprepared for one of these hitting their deck.
Most decks have better protection than your average
armored jacket and they might be able to take
the hit, but get tagged while you were planning to
sleaze in rather than take on IC and you just might
be taking pointers from the street sam about how
to stay useful in the fight. Of course, he might be
slowed down to your speed, because his wires got
tagged too.
> These are being looked at heavily by several law
enforcement security corps as tech suppressors in hostile
situations. Send in one member of the team with a light
machine gun or something equally ammo abundant,
and just lay down fire. Enough rounds hitting, even just
sprayed in general, cuts comms, disarms weapons, kills
cyber, and frags their tech hard. Doesn’t even matter
if you have civvies around because the rounds are one
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
48 DIPS & CHIPS >>

hundred percent non-lethal. Barely even enough damage
to blind an eye on a direct hit.
> Stone
> Not one hundred percent. Headware and medical cyber,
like artificial hearts, that get bricked can cause brain
damage and death.
> Butch
> I’ll accept your point there, but all that ’ware came with
a signed waiver relieving any and all parties of death
responsibilities in the case of equipment failure or error.
> Stone
> What?!
> /dev/grrl
> Drek! He’s not making that up. It’s buried in the legal
jargon. No one is legally responsible if a device installed
within the cranial cavity causes brain damage or death. It’s
in every corp’s fine lines for that kind of ware.
> /dev/grrl
> First off, stop hanging around Bull. Secondly, I thought
we’d jaded you a bit more than that, /dev/. They control
everything. They won’t be financially responsible for
anything they don’t want to be.
> Glasswalker
LOOPER ROUNDS
ZAPPER ROUND RULES
Rather than doing normal damage, these bullets do Matrix
Damage. The standard ranged attack roll is made with damage
increased by net hits and applied to a single device possessed,
worn, carried, or implanted in the targeted individual. The
device receiving the damage is selected at random by the
gamemaster, or by the attacking player if they succeed in a
Called Shot. Devices can only be targeted by a Called Shot if
they are visible to the attacker. Damage Resistance roll is made
using the Device Rating + Firewall, along with any other damage
resistance programs.
Burst Fire and Full Auto have an alternate option. Instead of
hindering the target’s Defense Test, the attack strikes multiple
devices, or one device more than once. Burst Fire hits twice,
Long Burst hits three times, and Full Auto hits four times.
Avail: 12R, Cost (per 10): 140¥
These rounds were developed on the streets of
Chicago back in ’76, during a stint of time that
the place had shoddy wireless. The corps were
using a lot of the old wired infrastructure on their
security and deckers just didn’t have enough data
taps to clip onto every exposed wire in sight. The
coding came from a local hacker known as 3D,
while the round modification came from his pal
Byom. Credit given, now quit your slitching. They
modified a set of Stick-n-Shock rounds to hit recording
devices, audio, video, trideo, didn’t matter,
run a rapid burst of Edit coding on a customized
RFID in through a feed similar to touchlink to
create a footage loop, and then use the capacitor
power to keep up the mini-hack for as long as it
could. The things were aces on the streets with
those teams that still valued anonymity. Needless
to say, the number of those in Chicago is limited,
but MCT got their hands on the tech and wanted
it for their own company men. Once in the hands
of MCT, every other corp wanted it, and now the
rounds are produced by several arms manufacturers
and no longer look like a wad of snot on
impact (no offense, Byom).
These wonderful tools have two drawbacks
that no R&D department has managed to correct:
velocity and accuracy. The combination of electronics
loaded in the slug make it poorly balanced,
and their delicate nature makes hitting things at
high velocity a tragic endeavor. The solution is a
secondary boon for teams that like to stay qui-

KILL CODE The rounds will loop eyeware if you tag a target in the
face. It’s not easy because they don’t fly very straight, so a
moving target is almost certainly not going to be hit, but it
works. Bonus effect: A reboot doesn’t help as long as the
round is still present and active, so whoever you hit has to
peel off the slug first in order to reboot.
> 2XL
> Side of the head works too. Eyeware is weird because we
focus on sight so much. Earware often just makes us feel
deaf. Though if you can time a loud noise with the loop,
you can drop a troll.
> Stone
> If you can hit them in the head with round, why not just
d-rez their brain?
> 3L1T3
> Because killing in the real world ain’t like de-rezzing in the
Matrix. It’s real, bloody, and real bloody.
> Stone
> I’ve killed plenty. Brain-fry is just as dead as scrambled
software.
> 3L1T3
> 3L1T3, what’d they look like? Just tell me one.
> Stone
> I took down the infamous Cube of Death, Charles
Cunningham Conrad. Old-school black IC cube persona
with razor teeth and a sawxblade launcher.
> 3L1T3
> Perfect kid, thanks. I sent you a pic in a PM, that’s
Charlie. He was fourteen and angry at his parents for
giving him a cyberdeck instead of fixing his spine.
None of his attacks ever seriously injured anyone,
and while he did an impressive eight-figure total of
damage with his hacking skills, he still worried about
people’s lives.
> Stone
> So?
> 3L1T3
> PM me in a week. Let’s stop hogging bandwidth here.
> Stone
> Damn! Late to the game. What happened?
> Hexatite
> PM Stone and find out. Locking out the thread.
> Glitch
FUZZY ROUNDS
Sick of getting hacked while you only have a
vague idea of where the hacker is? Or maybe you
know exactly where she is and you really want to
mess with her day? Keep a clip of fuzzy rounds
around.
50 DIPS & CHIPS >>
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

KILL CODE These are also great for shutting down a guard’s comms
for the second or two it takes to cover the distance to
bring them down quietly, or if you’re concerned that you
won’t be able to bring them down before they can squawk
for help.
> 2XL
> It’s rare, but occasionally the emitters in the rounds cancel
each other out. The frequencies negate each other, and
they have zero effect when fired together.
> Beaker
E0-E0 ROUNDS
Before you ask, no, E0-E0 is not short for anything—
it’s a play on the use of 3s as Es in hacker speak.
In some strangely humorous (to someone, somewhere
I guess) way, it’s a reference to the famous
30-30 hunting gauge of big-game rifles because
these rounds are designed to hunt technocritters
and, in a way I can’t explain well, electrosapients.
The technocritter side, I get. The rounds emit a
burst of biofeedback similar to Matrix Attack protocols
that hit the electronic persona of the technocritter.
KO the electro side, KO the critter with
practically no physically damaging attack. Popular
in hunting for researchers who have some level of
morals, because hitting a non-Emerged critter with
these things does nothing.
As for AIs and the various metasapiant critters
that have been popping up more and more often
lately, how it works is more technically complex,
but I got a basic primer to help me understand it,
so I can sell it. Each round has a special RFID chip
with a focused set of programs. One program detects
the presence of AI or technosapient coding,
FUZZY ROUND RULES
Fuzzy rounds use Light Pistol ranges and create a narrow
area of Noise. The modifier is +1 Noise per round, cumulative,
and it lasts for 2 Combat Turns.
The Area is determined by the type of round and the attack
roll. When attacking a location, the Area of Effect is a radius of
1m/net hit with the maximum AoE based on ammo type. When
attacking a target that can avoid the attack, the Area of Effect
is the same, but that pocket of Noise moves with them for the
duration with a successful hit.
Suppressive fire can cover a targeted area (a line of the
firer’s choosing). The attack roll and line length determines
the Noise modifier, spreading the +20 evenly over the affected
zone. Targets within the line that get hit are affected as above
and decrease the overall number of rounds for the affected
zone, decreasing the +20 by 1 per target hit.
As mentioned in the flavor text, glitches can cancel some
effectiveness or even crack rounds in the gun and affect the
shooter as powdered bullets spray into the air around them.
TYPE
Light Pistol, Machine
Pistol, Assault Rifle
MAX AOE
COST (10
ROUNDS)
2m 30
Heavy Pistol, SMG, Shotgun 5m 50
Avail 10R and 12R, respectively.
the second attacks it. A third portion of the programming
releases a solvent into the round if the
attack protocol is tripped, turning the round to a
fine spray that quickly dries into a thin dust. I was
told the round loses some effectiveness when
operating across grids and can’t affect electrosapients
on hosts because the programming protocols
require some level of local device ID capture
to hit the various microprocesses that are running
on each local device for the overall Matrix. Hitting
something that is currently loaded onto or inhabiting
a device has the opposite effect of attacking
across grids, making it more effective.
Even though the rounds are named for a famous
hunting rifle, they are mainly made for pistols and
submachine guns due to the load size and the limited
effective range. I discussed this with a manufacturer
and pointed out the difficulty of hunting a
technocritter at such a close range. He mentioned
a rifle caliber in the works, but prototypes had thus
far not overcome the physical damage caused by a
round of sufficient mass for that range of effective
and accurate flight.

KILL CODE Fragging ignorant fragheads. “No physically damaging
attack”?! Just an electronic assault in their brain!
> Netcat
> As you can tell by her anger … yes, they work against
technomancers!
> Clockwork
E0-E0 ROUND RULES
E0-E0 rounds use Light Pistol ranges and cause Matrix
Damage to technosapients (including AIs), technocritters, and
technomancers. A standard Ranged Attack roll is resisted with
a Matrix (Intuition + Firewall) or Physical (Reaction + Intuition)
Defense roll. If the attack hits, roll Matrix Damage Resistance
(Device Rating + Firewall) as normal, with a +2 modifier for each
level of grid difference (public/local/megacorporate) between
the attacker and target. The attacker has to choose what grid
the rounds operate on at the time of purchase. If the AI or
e-critter is inhabiting a device, they suffer a –2 modifier to their
Damage Resistance.
TYPE DAM MOD AP MOD AVAIL
COST (10
ROUNDS)
E0-E0 — — 5R 50¥*
E0-E0 Rifle –4 –4 5R 100¥*
*The base price is for rounds for the public grid. Rounds
for local grids are 60. Rounds for megacorporate grids are 100.
ARROWLINK RULES
The ArrowLink allows the user to ignore all Noise
modifiers across a distance between the user and the
hit target, making it able to bypass jammers, local spam,
environmental modifiers, distance, etc.
Hitting and sticking the arrow requires 2 net hits on
the Attack Test and does no damage. Removing the arrow
requires an Extended Strength (4 + net hits, 1 Complex Action)
Test. Severing the cord cuts the connection and requires a
Strength (2) Test or 1 box of Physical Damage, leaving the
arrow in place.
Firing even a single meter beyond the cord length causes
the cord to snap.
TYPE AVAIL COST
50m 6R 25¥
100m 8R 75¥
200m 10R 200¥
500m 12R 400¥
ARROWLINK
This one was a little weird, and I include it here
because it is technically ammo, but really just intended
as an accessory, though I imagine some
creative hoophats could come up with an offensive
use. To the point!
The ArrowLink looks like a standard arrow shaft
with a short cord attached to a hook, dataplug
on the end, and a broadhead arrowhead made of
black rubber. The plug goes into any universal port
on a Matrix device. The shaft of the arrow is filled
with a microfine datacord that comes out during
flight and just behind the head is a broadcast
nodule. The cord creates a one hundred percent
noise-free connection between the arrow and the
connected device.
The various models include different lengths of
cord, the most expensive part of the arrow. Once
used they can’t be reused because of the special loading
method of the cord to prevent breakage in flight.
The head is made of an ultra-adhesive material capable
of sticking to all but the most slippery surfaces.
The goal of the ArrowLink is to make a perfect
connection between a commlink or cyberdeck,
usually the latter, and a point outside of an area of
intense Matrix interference.
> These are also great for tagging a living target and giving
you a quick window of clean signal to scrag as much
of their wireless gear as possible. Even if they yank the
arrow and drop it, it’s usually close enough to them to
keep a clean signal.
> Hexatite
> It doesn’t even have to hit a person. Hit the nearby
building and no one even realizes they are point blank for
a clean cyberattack until it’s way too late.
> Glitch
GRENADES
Sometimes the oddest friendships can create
some of the most interesting results. Much like the
looper rounds discussed above, several of these
grenades came from the drunken late-night conversations
between Byom and 3D around a trashcan
fire in Hoodville in the Chicago CZ. It’s what
happens when a tech expert and a demolitions
expert get together and start brainstorming. Other
entries here are inbound from Evo’s labs (guess
who designed those) and leave a bad taste in my
mouth, but I can’t lie—they’re effective.
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
52 DIPS & CHIPS >>

KILL CODE So basically they made high-intensity spam-jammers,
with visual coding, that are disposable.
> Bull
> But the rabbits are so funny! I did a little program tweaking
and mine all have little Slamm-0! style bats for ears.
> Slamm-0!
> I made cat ones. Duh.
> Netcat
FUZZY GRENADE RULES
Fuzzy grenades come in varying Power levels. The Power
is the base Noise modifier for the grenade. This Power goes
down by 1 for every 2 meters from the point of origin. The
maximum Power currently available is 20. The Noise lasts for
2 Combat Turns.
GRENADE AVAIL COST
Fuzzy 10R 20¥ x Power

KILL CODE Technos hate these even more. The momentary separation
from the Matrix can be debilitating.
> Clockwork
COS GRENADE RULES
The grenade interrupts all Matrix access (and with it,
all wireless bonuses) for all devices within the affected
area. Anyone using a commlink, cyberdeck, or RCC in full
VR mode immediately suffers dumpshock (see p. 229, SR5).
Drones separated from their RCC continue to follow their last
commands until they reconnect.
A device that loses its Matrix connection alerts its user
that it will shut down and reboot automatically at the end of
the present Combat Turn. The user may prevent it from doing
so with a Simple Action (or a Free Action via DNI). Multiple
devices require separate actions unless they are slaved to
the same master device. Devices that reboot come back
online at the end of the following Combat Turn.
Technomancers in range must resist 10S damage and are
temporarily severed from the Matrix.
GRENADE AVAIL COST
CoS 10R 500¥
DOUSER
I am an advocate for the advancement of beneficial
(especially to my credstick) technology.
That said, I will openly admit that I take issue with
some of the drek coming out of Evo, because I
know full well how they got it. On the backs of
Monad slaves that somehow bought into Evo’s
“meta-friendly” image and decided it was better
to work for them than to escape the shackles of
this world and shoot off into the stars.
Okay, maybe I’m a little jealous, but Evo has
been working their big brains and using them to
develop tech that is leaps and bounds ahead of
competitors (until they get stolen) for nothing
more than a prison within their own corp.
Sorry for the sidetrack. Douser is all sorts of
scary. The basic adverts for the grenade seem
pretty mundane. Toss it out and let it wear down
the protective code of all local hardware. Slightly
more technical, it does a focused attack on the
Firewall of every device in the area of effect. How
it does this is the truly scary part. Monads aren’t
afraid of nanites (unless it’s the frag-all crazy ones
that zipped up Boston), so they have no problem
designing a few new bits of tech that utilize some
of their own groupthink-designed nanotech. That’s
the Douser design.
When the grenade explodes, it releases a vapor
cloud over a narrow area. This vapor cloud isn’t
just heated water vapor; it also contains a massive
volume of nanites. The nanites merge processing
power and programming for a single purpose. No,
not overwriting your brain—stop living in the past.
In the case of Douser, the nanites ravage the Firewall.
Get it? FIREwall. Douser. So funny. The nanite
programming can shred the defense systems of
low-end electronics in a blink, leaving them vulnerable
to attack, and it softens even the highest-end
systems.
Best thing is, they don’t discriminate, and they
hit every bit of tech in range. Only thing that can
keep you safe, is a full shutdown. Even killing the
wireless doesn’t stop them from landing on you
and close enough to access via a touchlink style
system.
> Not to go off-topic, but I know Mr. Johnsons in at least
twelve different cities who are running Evo contracts at
an alarming rate. The money is there if you’re up for the
variety of new challenges you may face.
> Fianchetto
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
54 DIPS & CHIPS >>

KILL CODE Biggest issue I’ve come across with current ops on Evo:
overlap. Teams running into other teams going after R&D
in the same facility.
> Mika
> Hackers running Wrapper programs to look like locals are
getting into scuffles with fellow runners and bringing IC
down on everyone’s head. It’s ugly out there, kiddos.
> Bull
DUMDUM
While attacking the Firewall of a system was a
great first step and seemed logical, the techs at
Evo then went a step further. Why not ignore
the protection protocols completely and instead
flood the processing system with pointless functions
to the point of overload and shut down devices
that way?
DumDum goes after the Data Processing system
instead of the Firewall software. Instead of
leaving a device defenseless or forcing it to shut
down, the cloud of DumDum nanites gobs up the
system with junk processes and prevents the system
from performing normal operations. There
is no shutdown warning with DumDum, just a
sudden inability to complete any kind of task. A
successful barrage will make even voice or text
transmission impossible, and the only report you
get is the “thinking” icon of your particular device.
Transys devices are particularly humorous, as the
little fighting knight slows down and moves in a
herky-jerky slow motion. A full shutdown/reboot
gets the system clean, but it has to be a hard shutdown
and restart (a.k.a. holding down the power
button), because the reboot process is slowed by
the attack as well. Devious little system they developed
here. No real warning until you need to
do something.
> I can’t decide whether the use of weaponized nanites
so soon after the events of Albuquerque and Boston is
a sign that we have way too short a memory, that we’re
extremely resilient when it comes to tech, or that we’re
just that fragging stupid.
> Bull
> The last option. Definitely!
> Slamm-0!
> Widespread understanding of the truth of CFD just isn’t
there. Every corp puts enough spin to make its citizens
feels safe, and most of the major nations of the world get
DOUSER RULES
The nanites burst out over a five-meter-radius sphere.
The nanites make a single Rating x 2 [Rating] (Firewall) Test.
Hits over the threshold decrease the Firewall rating of all
devices in the area at a rate of –1 per net hit. Cyberware is
also targeted by the attack.
When a device’s Firewall is reduced to zero, it alerts its
user that its protection software has been compromised, and
that it will shut down and reboot automatically at the end of
the present Combat Turn. The user may prevent a device from
shutting down with a Simple Action (or a Free Action via DNI).
Multiple devices require separate actions unless they are all
slaved to the same master device.
Firewalls remain at their lowered state until rebooted.
Devices that shut down and reboot come back online at the
end of the following Combat Turn with their Firewalls fully
restored.
Gamemaster note: This attack could take a lot of recordkeeping
time. To simplify the process, have the character
take note of the final hits total and only worry about it if they
try to use a piece of gear or the piece of gear gets digitally
attacked. The number of hits divided by two can act as a
simple distraction modifier for the Combat Turn as their AR is
flooded with warnings.
The maximum rating of the Douser grenade is 10.
their news from corp feeds.
> Snopes
> Blaming nanites for CFD is like blaming a gun for shooting
someone. They were a tool to complete a task. I won’t
say it could never happen again, but I am saying that
the number of jobs getting offered by AIs to go free their
fellows from some dark and well-guarded places is high.
> Ma’fan
ACCESSORIES AND TOYS
This is kind of my catch-all category for things
that don’t fit elsewhere. It’s a bit of a hodgepodge,
but it’s good stuff.
FACELESS
GRENADE AVAIL COST
Douser (Rating x 2)F Rating x 50¥
This could have gone in the Cutting Aces file, as it’s
perfect for those who prefer not to be identified.

KILL CODE Every runner in the world needs to use these things.
They’re killer high-end tech, with the price tag to match,
but these babies are bringing the shadow back to
shadowrunning.
> Mika
> I know a fellow who is quite protective of his anonymity
and used both a nanopaste mask and the Faceless lapel
pin in the form of a rose to make sure no one can be sure
it’s him passing through security.
> Thorn
> A rose, eh? Don’t know who that could be. Is it an Irish
rose perhaps?
> Slamm-0!
> It’s advice without pretension, Slammy. You should try it
sometime.
> Thorn
> Seriously, talking about someone else when we all know
it’s you is pretty much the definition of pretentious.
> Slamm-0!
> Don’t sell the authorities short on getting to those devices
that actually snag your face. That hardwired convenience
store cam may have gotten you, but the cash they slipped
the owner, or the beating they gave him, just make the
intel less useful in a court of law.
> Black Knight
> Like most of us will ever see a court of law.
> Balladeer
BOOSTER CLOUD
Another creation using nanites coming out of
Evo’s labs, but also being produced by Saeder-Krupp
and Renraku. Which means we know
who contracted some jobs against Evo. Anyway,
the booster cloud is a nanite-filled aerosol can
about the size of a can of pepperpunch. When
dispensed, the nanites are preprogrammed to
enhance a specific Matrix function. The cans
were originally meant as an in-the-field booster
for corporate deckers but have slipped onto the
streets, like most super-handy tools.
Data spike cans are some of the most com-
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
56 DIPS & CHIPS >>

KILL CODE These things are great for pre-planned gigs or a little
boost on the fly. Toughest trick is getting them past
security, but I know a secondary-market guy who
does custom casings. Spray paint, inhalers, perfume
bottles—If it comes with a spray nozzle, he can probably
fit a booster into it.
> Slamm-0!
MULTIPROGRAM
OPERATING SYSTEM
If it works in a piece of cyber, someone usually
figures out how to make it work outside said
piece of cyber. Much like the internal system of
the datajack plus (see below), the multiprogram
operating system (MOS) allows for the addition
and operation of a plethora of additional programs.
Without the additional computing power
that the d-plus pulls from the brain, the MOS requires
an extensive series of processors, pushing
its cost up and even beyond the d-plus, but hey, it
doesn’t require a hole in your skull. (I know, not a
concern, but I’ve already caught tons of flack for
the cost!) The system comes with a datacord and
insulated storage case as it’s too large to mount
BOOSTER CLOUD RULES
A Simple Action disperses a half can, a Complex Action
disperses the whole can. Half the can offers a +1 dice pool
modifier, +1 to the applicable limit; the whole can offers a
+2 dice pool modifier, +1 to the applicable limit. The quantity
released determines the bonus to a single type of Matrix
Action, for up to 3 Combat Turns depending on the local air
movement (winds, spells, ventilation systems, etc.).
TYPE AVAIL COST
Brute Force 6R 250¥
Control Device 6R 200¥
Crack File 6R 150¥
Crash Program 6R 150¥
Data Spike 8R 300¥
Edit File — 150¥
Erase Mark 6R 150¥
Hack on the Fly 6R 250¥
Hide 6R 150¥
Jam Signals 6R 150¥
Matrix Perception — 100¥
Reboot Device 6R 250¥
Snoop 6R 200¥
Spoof Command 6R 250¥
Trace Icon 8R 200¥
Custom Case 6 200¥

KILL CODE Don’t let this thing get near you deck when it’s operating.
The processors can barely cool themselves, and the box
gets hot enough to burn flesh. Use the datacord and
insulated box.
> Pistons
> I don’t recommend it, but I’ve used the box as a painful
distraction before by running it while someone was trying
to procure it from me during a field test.
> Slamm-0!
> You field-tested these? How hot do they run?
> Glitch
> Took a top-of-the-line model on a rural op and cooked an
egg on it. No joke. It wasn’t necessary—just wanted to see
if it would work.
> Slamm-0!
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
58 DIPS & CHIPS >>

KILL CODE You had a real egg and you cooked it on your tech toy?
> /dev/grrl
> I had a lot of eggs as I was hiding out in a henhouse at the
time. I ate so many, I’m kind of over them.
> Slamm-0!
BOOSTER CHIPS
While MCT was putting technomancers through
the black site torture program, Evo was using some
of their newest assets to infiltrate and steal the research
data MCT was gathering. Using biological
readings from a myriad of tests, Evo managed to
develop a simchip-based protocol that enhances
certain aspects of a technomancer’s living persona
through short bursts of BTL-level feeds. As you
would expect, there’s a small risk of addiction due
to to these feeds, but the addiction numbers were
lower in test subjects, likely due to the focused nature
and purpose of the chips. The chips come in
four varieties, one for each aspect of the living persona,
with basic grades of the chips available commercially.
There are also some seriously ampedup
versions on the streets that have cooler names
thanks to their shady dealers. Overuse and mixing
the chips can cause issues, but a troublesome
headache is better than getting brainfried by IC.
The big tech jump here is a slotless BTL. The
chips have a series of pins with a mix of sensors
and stimulators. When applied to the cranial region,
the pins transmit the signal directly to the
brain, like a single-spot trode. The chips need
bare skin, meaning many technomancers who use
them keep a patch of their scalp shaved rather
than sticking the chips on their foreheads.
> If you can look past the source of the initial research and
the forces used to steal it, these chips are a handy little
tool for technomancers everywhere. The headache claim
might be brushing problems under the carpet, but I’ve
found it’s more about usage at that point. If you run a
bunch of those street chips together, you’re asking for a
hurting, but the commercial boosters aren’t terrible.
> Netcat
> Be careful about picking up the commercial ones at your
local Stuffer Shack in areas where technomancers aren’t
wanted. You may not have a problem, or you may walk
out the door to a group of thugs that got tipped off by
the clerk. Not to mention the sales records getting sold
or stolen and ending up in the hands of any number of
hatred-filled policlubs.
> Respec
> I know Clockwork won’t mention it, despite his
involvement, but a number of runner teams around the
country have been contracted to swap real booster chips
for fakes in stores. The grapevine claims that some have
had their pins coated with DMSO and an unpleasant
cocktail, but most just claim they don’t work. Care to
comment, Clockwork?
> Slamm-0!
> Claims are bogus. Between Evo feeding the world a line
of garbage about these and other corps jumping on the
bandwagon with chemical-laced brain boosters and
pitching the same effect, you’re all getting fed a load
of garbage. I deal with my problems head on, not by
poisoning them on the sly.
> Clockwork
> We all know better than to believe that!
> Netcat
BOOSTER CHIP RULES
The rating of the booster chip adds directly to both the
living persona attribute to which it is connected, increasing the
limit, and to all dice pools where that attribute is involved. The
modifier is never applied twice to the same test—for example,
in a Matrix Defense Test that already involves the Firewall
attribute, the dice pool increase for the related test would not
also be applied, since Firewall was already increase. The chip
requires a Simple Action to attach, and it runs for 2 Combat
Turns. At the end of the chip’s duration, the chip inflicts (Rating)
S damage, resisted by Body. For each other chip simultaneously
in use, that damage increases by 2, meaning a technomancer
running a series of Rating 4 chips would need to resist 10S, 8S,
6S, and 4S as their durations ended.
The chips have an Addiction Rating equal to the total rating
in use, and a threshold of (2 + 1 for every additional chip in use).
TYPE RATING AVAIL COST
Attack
Booster
Sleaze
Booster
Data
Processing
Booster
Firewall
Booster
Armor
Defeating
1–2 — Rating x 50¥
1–2 — Rating x 50¥
1–2 — Rating x 50¥
1–2 — Rating x 50¥
3-4 (Rating x 4)R Rating x 250¥
Slick Willy 3–4 (Rating x 4)R Rating x 250¥
Data Dynamo 3–4 (Rating x 4)R Rating x 250¥
Fortified 3–4 (Rating x 4)R Rating x 250¥

KILL CODE Great for those just out to do the job. They lack any kind
of flexibility. Even the other locked designs have some
program variability for tough spots. If you run with the N
(or run with a decker with one), know that versatility is not
on the menu.
> Pistons
FUCHI CYBER-EX SERIES
Similar in design to the N-series, the Ex-series
offers the same custom system design but instead
of no processors to run programs, it offers
a unique program sub-processor that allows a
greater number of programs to be run. Despite
the steep price tag, the programs aren’t included,
but each system has enough memory to store
twice the number it can run at any given time for
those who want options. Purchasers appreciate
the extra program capacity, even if it means sacrificing
some of the capabilities of the deck itself.
Programs aren’t included, despite the steep price
tag, but the system has enough storage memory
to hold as many as you can afford.
> I like the thought here, and the heavy program load
makes up a little for the lack of versatility. Then again, it
also allows for a very focused device with some programs
around to protect you long enough to run if things go
south.
> Pistons
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
60 DIPS & CHIPS >>

KILL CODE Careful trying to tweak the program complement on these.
The hardware inside is specifically designed to prevent
tampering. Plenty of deckers have turned their expensive
tech into shiny junk by trying to swap out program blocks
and missing a pin or two.
> /dev/grrl
HUNTER DECKS
Similar to security decks, hunter decks are
utilized by a unique class of newly developing
electronic specialists known as E-Hunters. These
cyber-security specialists are taking their work
EX-SERIES RULES
Ordering a custom setup costs the amounts listed below.
For the Ex-series, a deck’s Device Rating determines the
maximum rating of every other attribute, but it can run a number
of programs equal to the Device Rating plus two.
ATTRIBUTE COST AVAIL
Deck Rating (Deck Rating x 2)R Rating x 10,000¥
Attack — Rating^3 x 500¥
Sleaze — Rating^2 x 500¥
Data Processing — Rating^2 x 500¥
Firewall (Rating x 4)R Rating^3 x 500¥
on the offensive, focused on the new technosapients
and e-critters (mostly the former, though
the latter occasionally find themselves in similar
habitats). These decks focus on one thing and one
thing only: killing. Or more accurately, derezzing
AIs and other purely electronic entities. They have
their specific limitations and protections but are
designed to be of limited use for regular hacking,
and they are exemplary at the dangerous job of
e-hunting, including being devoid of a sim-inhibitor,
meaning they run on hot-sim all the time.
Makes you fast and ready to rock and roll at any
moment, but it also means you had better be at
SECURITY DECK RULES
All security decks come with special anti-tamper systems that brick the device if programs are changed. Changing a program
block requires a Logic + Hardware [Mental] (Device Rating x 2, 1 hour) Extended Test. If any roll does not achieve any hits, the deck
is bricked.
MODEL RATING ATTACK SLEAZE DATA PROC. FIREWALL AVAIL COST
Guard 2 3 1 2 4 3R 39,000¥
Programs: Encryption
Shield 4 4 1 3 5 6R 98,000¥
Programs: Encryption, Shell
Fortress 6 6 1 5 8 9R 377,000¥
Programs: Encryption, Shell, Armor
Great Wall 8 8 1 6 10 12R 774,000¥
Programs: Encryption, Shell, Armor, Biofeedback Filter

KILL CODE These are dangerous, plain and simple. They offer a lot of
hitting power, solid protection, and no chance of sleazing
your way out of trouble. If you go out operating with one
of these, there’s only one way you’ll be dealing with your
problems. Directly.
> /dev/grrl
SHADOW WARRIOR RULES
This deck adds +1 limit for Matrix Sleaze actions, and a
+1 to the Sleaze attribute when that is configured to be the
highest attribute.
EVO SUBLIME RULES
When jacked in using VR, the decker faces challenges
performing actions outside the Matrix. Any non-Matrix actions
suffer a –10 dice pool modifier and –3 limit reduction (to a
minimum of 1). It’s just enough control to pull out a cable to
a physical machine that you are link-locked into, or fire wildly
into melee.
AZTECHNOLOGY
SHADOW WARRIOR
Building on the success of the Microtronica Azteca
200, Aztechnology has produced an affordable
deck that caters to deckers who don’t want
to be seen.
Exactly how Aztechnology optimized a deck for
stealth in this way is a puzzle—they may have applied
some of their research into technomancers,
or they may have some insight, back door, or (most
likely) leverage on the Grid Overwatch Division. Either
way, they may have an advantage in the Matrix
for a while, until their competitors catch up.
EVO SUBLIME
Only available as an implanted deck, the Evo Sublime
takes transhumanism to the next level by allowing
VR hackers to take some limited actions in
the physical world. Splitting attention across the
Matrix and the meat world is distracting, and it
requires significant concentration to perform actions
outside VR.
> This is more dangerous than it seems. The mix of feeds
and poor control make almost any activity dangerous.
Beware when trying to use this for more than just a little
self-preservation by yanking your cord.
> Glitch
FAIRLIGHT DESTINY BLADE
Fairlight has long been a leader in cutting-edge
electronics, but their Excalibur range has been out
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
62 DIPS & CHIPS >>

KILL CODE

KILL CODE This program is straight trash-hacker software. If you can’t
be bothered to run a baby monitor and know when you’re
in trouble and instead would rather bring GOD down on
some poor unsuspecting slob, don’t ever let me find out.
I will rain down a hell far worse than the simple KO and
pickup of GOD.
> Glitch
> Yeah, this. I appreciate people knowing this is out there,
but seriously, if you want any hacker cred, don’t use this
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
64 DIPS & CHIPS >>

fragging cheatware. I don’t often agree with the corps,
but making this thing equivalent to murder is legit in
my book.
> Bull
> Thank you, white hats. For all of you real hackers out
there, use this to your heart’s content. Pulling punches
isn’t our job, and as long as GOD is going to keep coming
down and acting with impunity, we can make a few cases
to prove how recklessly those slitches play the game.
They don’t care if they rain down black hammers like it’s
monsoon season, and I’m not taking the blame for that.
This program lets you skip eyeballing your baby monitor
every half second and lets you know just when the drek
hits the fan. If it never hits, it never hits, and that’s the goal
anyway, but if we’ve gotta play by GOD’s rules, frag them
if I’m playing anywhere close to nice, because they sure
as frag don’t.
> ICPK
> You can think that all you want. But when you are keeping
a low profile and some two-bit hacker uses a Cry Wolf and
you’re the one they bring the brimstone down on, you’ll
change your tune.
> Respec
> Seriously? Looking at the user data on an average
grid like Emerald City and knowing the general runner
community of Seattle, I can calculate the odds of this
program hitting a fellow hacker, be they unassuming
decker or a random techno, at about 100,000 to 1.
Seeing as the number of deckers in Seattle who might
use this program is also relatively low—well, you can
take your “it happened to a friend of a friend” tale and
go tell it to the gullible. My efforts are worth more than
any average sheeple hack any day.
> ICPK
> Might not necessarily agree, but more varying viewpoints
are nice. Glad you’re expanding access a little, guys.
> /dev/grrl
CYBERWARE
AND BIOWARE
It’s not a lot, but what I have lined up is high-quality.
This is bleeding edge and I’ve got the docs on
my rolodex app to make installs happen in almost
every major sprawl around the globe.
DATAJACK PLUS
Every corp is trying to innovate a little to get a bit
more of the market share. And then another corp
takes their idea, re-labels it, and eventually, every
CRY WOLF RULES
corp has an offering, too, with almost the exact
same features. The datajack plus is the latest in
these efforts to get everyone to upgrade or buy
the newest tech. Its basic functionality is identical
to a standard datajack, offering a DNI link to
devices and a filter to handle some of the local
interference, but the Plus offers a small cache of
memory and a processor system that links up
with your commlink (or cyberdeck) with the ability
to run programs. The d-plus system comes in
a variety of processor speeds and cache sizes to
offer a variety of options for the executive with
an eye on the top spot or the electronic security
specialist that needs an edge because the shadows
keep getting faster and more deadly.
> The jack-plus is becoming the crutch of wealthy wannabes,
rather than the next step in the hacker evolution. Too many
punks trying to use the myriad of programs instead of a
quality deck or genuine skills.
> Respec
> That’s one point of view. Using these advances isn’t a
crutch for everyone who gets the plus. Some people just
want to have that extra edge, and the plus offers a whole
porcupine worth of edges.
> Pistons
DATAJACK PLUS RULES
The datajack plus offers space for a number of Common and
Hacking programs. When connected to a commlink or cyberdeck,
the datajack plus can run a number of Common and Hacking
programs equal to its rating. The price includes [Rating] free
programs from the dealer that come preloaded (gamemaster’s
choice) but these can be changed. Maximum rating is 3.
ESS AVAIL COST
>> KILL CODE

KILL CODE Can’t say I know anyone with a system like this, but it
can’t be easy to operate between the two realms. Even
operating in an intense spam-zone can make the real
world impossible to interact with—I can’t imagine a
system that tries to merge the two worlds.
> Balladeer
CRANIAL SHIELD
EARRS RULES
The EARRS implant allows users to roll their Matrix
Initiative in a Physical encounter but limits the actions that
can be performed. While running the EARRS implant, the user
can move normally and perceive events in the physical world
through their standard senses, but all Physical and Social
Skill actions face a –10 dice pool modifier due to the system’s
confusion of physical and Matrix input. Matrix Actions can be
performed as normal.
ESS AVAIL COST
0.75 10R 30,000¥
I’m only including this as a favor to a friend who
wants people to know they exist. No one in their
right mind would ever intentionally get one installed.
The system is a series of emitters implanted
into the skull. The emitters throw off a
low-level interference signal that inhibits wireless
connections between devices in the cranium
and outside. A bypass, like a datajack, can be
used for access, but all wireless connections fail.
The system was supposedly designed to protect
couriers from getting their headware hacked, but
the existence of datalocks and the ability to shut
down wireless capability made plenty of skeptics.
Digging around for the original design traced the
whole thing back to MCT, and some additional
specs showed that the system also blocks technomancers
from accessing the Matrix. So now
we know why they made it.
> There is no reason for this to exist. This is some of the
most deplorable tech I have seen since cortex bombs.
There are no good uses for this!
> Netcat
> I’ll probably catch flak for this, but here goes. The
market for this implant is parents of technomancer
kids. I’m not a proponent of this by any means, but it’s
hard being a teenager and a technomancer. Or even
being an adult and a technomancer. This implant is
marketed as a way to shut off the overwhelming stream
of signals constantly battering a young technomancer.
It’s marketing, I know, and there are so many ways to
protect them without cutting off access to a natural
talent, but a lot of parents aren’t technomancers
themselves and don’t understand. They just see it as
something that is hurting their child, and they look to
this as a permanent solution.
> /dev/grrl
> Those parents don’t deserve those kids.
> Netcat
> Here’s a growing business for you: hacking clinics that
offer this “treatment” and then snatching kids before
surgery. The jobs vary in pay depending on the delivery
target for the kid. Delivering kids to a hooder looking to
help a young techno brings in low pay, while selling them
to a corp or (sorry, Orange Queen) a dragon pays better.
Looking into who you’re working for is a good idea here,
and before you go thinking about welching on the deal
in order to keep a young technomancer out of the corp’s
hands, remember they’re a person and will need to be
taken care of. Not to mention the fact that most of them
are already convinced by mom and dad that this is the
best solution to help them with their condition.
> Fianchetto
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
66 DIPS & CHIPS >>

KILL CODE Great. Now we can make freaks.
> Clockwork
> Already could. Isn’t that how you got here?
> Respec
> The stealth hacking options here are the real advantage
this allows. I’m as unhappy as the next person that the
megacorps do all sorts of testing and even torture people
to get their info, but to let those people die in vain seems
a far worse offense. Better to arm ourselves with the tech
and tools they discover and use it against them.
> /dev/grrl
IC
ESS AVAIL COST
0.5 10 15,000¥
Sometimes it’s not just good to know what we’re
able to buy, but also what might be sliding onto
the market to make your lives hell. I don’t offer
any kind of real sales figures here, as the corps
that make this stuff code it all in house, and when
they sell it, we’re talking corp-to-corp deals,
which are not my area of expertise.
FLICKER
Megacorporations have been developing IC for a
long time and have largely focused on lethal attacks
or significant interference. Last year, NYPD,
Inc. gained a non-lethal contract to protect several
buildings in Boston, and they included cybersecurity
as a part of that package. Unwilling to
just dump a hacker, the boys in blue spent some
money on non-lethal IC that also allows them to
study your avatar. Almost as soon as the IC was
developed, it was licensed to almost everyone on
the Matrix.
FLICKER RULES
Attack: Host Rating x 2 [Attack] v. Logic + Firewall
Flicker link-locks you when it hits and puts a mark on you. If
you have two marks on you, it disconnects you from the Matrix,
dealing dumpshock damage if appropriate. Although you
have been disconnected from the Matrix, your avatar doesn’t
disappear until you log back in using the same device, or after
[Device Rating] rounds. It remains where you left it, unable to
act, while other IC can attempt to trace your location or analyze
your avatar.
SLEUTHER
With the development of Flicker providing a minor
marketing boost, Lone Star began developing their
own non-lethal IC. Instead of focusing on an intruder’s
avatar, Sleuther attempts to work out your habits
and trackable characteristics from the trail your
virtual presence leaves. The IC has had limited success
in stopping hackers but has provided the contact
details of many hackers that can be found—and
possibly recruited—by the Star.
SLEUTHER RULES
Attack: Host Rating x 2 [Attack] v. Logic + Firewall
This IC puts a mark on you if it hits. Each mark provides a
legitimate user with +2 dice on any Matrix Search actions or
Matrix Perception tests involving you. It works by applying
different behavioral algorithms and heuristics to try to work out
what sort of person you are. This IC also installs tracker code
into your avatar, enabling the IC to identify which grids and
hosts your avatar visits after the mark lands. Marks from this IC
may be removed normally.

KILL CODE The Flow is meant to return “anonymous” usage statistics
back to Horizon to fold back into the algorithm, but any
decent decker can disable that in a variety of ways.
> Slamm-0!
WUXING
FREQUENCY COMMLINK
Wuxing may not have been as deeply embroiled
in the “technomancer controversy” as other
megacorps, but they must have engaged in some
experimentation, as shown by this commlink.
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
68 DIPS & CHIPS >>

KILL CODE

KILL CODE Okay, gotta ask the obvious: who, what, and why
should I care?
> Stone
> Interestingly enough, my searches found next to nothing.
What I did find says that the CEO, COO, CFO, and “lead
R&D programmer” is one E.D. “Ed” Lockwood. His
home address is in Detroit, but it’s three years old and
has no connections to a business. Lockwood is a former
Ares tech who worked on the Excalibur, and from the
information I found, he was basically one of several
sacrificial lambs when the project went down the
drekker. Other than that, nothing.
> Netcat
> So this guy is what, doing all this out of his garage or
something?
> X-Prime
> Yeah, I think he is. Only way you can get their products
is online.
> Netcat
PANTHEON INDUSTRIES
PI-TAC “TACTICAL APPS”
Introduced by Pantheon Industries only six
months ago, tactical apps (tac-apps) are meant
to both enhance a PI-TAC and allow users to customize
it for their specific needs or mission profile.
They function like programs in a cyberdeck
but are coded to operate exclusively in PI-Tac
units and cannot be used in cyberdecks that do
not have a linked PI-Tac. All bonuses and benefits
of a tac-app are cumulative with bonuses from
a linked cyberdeck or RCC but are geared more
toward decker usage.
A PI-Tac master unit can load a number of tacapps
equal to its rating plus two. Example: A level
two PI-Tac can have four tac-apps loaded at any
given time. Unlike cyberdecks and programs, it
takes a Simple Action to unload a running tac-app
and load a new one from storage.
CO-PILOT: MK I, II, AND III
One of the main features of Level III PI-Tacs
is the network operator’s ability to take limited
emergency control of a linked-in vehicle or
drone. The Co-Pilot series of tac-apps takes that
function a step further. Note: For these apps to
work properly, a PI-Tac operator must have admin
access and a wireless link to all target vehicles
and drones.
The MK I app is for Level III units and designed
to give enhanced functions versus the standard
benefits. With the MK I, an operator can operate
the target vehicle or drone directly as if operating
in cold-sim, assuming they have the necessary
skill or skillsoft. However, control is less than optimal
and inferior to a traditional rigger setup. Manufacturer
warns that this program is best used only
for emergencies or non-combat situations.
> Yeah. Since when do we actually listen to the
manufacturer’s warnings?
> Chainmaker
> This time we should. Based on my copy, it’s definitely not
meant to replace a rigger system. I tested a drone swarm
with it to see how far I could push. And sure enough,
in simulated combat the signal started to degrade and
control went down the drekker because the code couldn’t
keep up. But desperate times …
> Clockwork
The MK II allows Level I and II PI-Tacs to remotely
control a target vehicle and/or drone as if
they were a basic Level III unit. However, MK I and
II apps are currently incompatible with each other.
> For being some kind of new “innovative” products, these
tactical programs already seem to have some serious
limitations.
> Cayman
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
70 DIPS & CHIPS >>

PANTHEON INDUSTRIES
“CO-PILOT” MK I
>> KILL CODE Like any new tech, you have to make it work. Then make
it better.
> Rigger X
> Also, “currently” incompatible. Someday, the future will
be now.
> Kane
The MK III allows a PI-Tac operator to directly
assist a pilot in operating their vehicle’s
secondary systems, such as sensors or communications,
allowing the pilot to concentrate on
primary tasks. In emergencies, the PI-Tac operator
can assist should one or more pilots become
incapacitated. In extreme cases, the MK III allows
a PI-Tac operator to take emergency control
should all pilots become incapacitated and/
or the auto-pilot systems become inoperative.
> A chum in the 180 th IAR is testing these for the regiment
and says that when two people are operating the same
vehicle or drone together and running the MK III, they get
the odd sensation of being cramped and crowded.
> Turbo Bunny
DOOR GUNNER
Similar to the Co-Pilot, this app is specifically designed
to give PI-Tac operators the ability to remotely
operate powered weapon mounts (such
as turrets) or launch weapons (such as missiles or
rockets) on a linked vehicle. Because of the narrow
focus of this program, there are no penalties
associated with its use.
ECM-WARRIOR
Electronic warfare and electronic countermeasures
continue to be mainstays of modern combat,
so the ECM-Warrior tac-app is designed to
give the PI-Tac operator some extra electronic
ammo, whether defending against them or attacking
with them.
AVAIL
COST
12R 400¥
Rules: Allows a Level III PI-Tac operator to control a target
vehicle or drone as if by remote, using cold-sim. Additionally, all
piloting skills have an automatic –2 penalty while operating the
target vehicle in safe conditions, –3 in combat conditions.
PANTHEON INDUSTRIES
“CO-PILOT” MK II
AVAIL
COST
12R 400¥
Rules: Allows Level I and II operators to control drones as if
in “captain’s chair mode.”
PANTHEON INDUSTRIES
“CO-PILOT” MK III
AVAIL
COST
12R 400¥
Rules: Allows operator to access vehicle’s secondary
systems with no penalty and assist with Pilot tests at a –1
dice pool penalty. If using this program as sole pilot, penalty
increases to –3.
PANTHEON INDUSTRIES
“DOOR GUNNER”
AVAIL
COST
12R 200¥
Rules: No penalties for use; linked weapon must have
smartlink and secure wireless connection. Not for use with
drones. Operator must have necessary skill or skillsoft.
PANTHEON INDUSTRIES
“ECM-WARRIOR”
AVAIL
COST
12R 200¥
Rules: This program provides a bonus of +3 for all Electronic
Warfare tests

KILL CODE Several companies across the globe produce the same
generic product, but with different names and logos. They
all do the same thing, some for a better price.
> Danger Sensei
> And with varying quality, don’t forget that. But Pantheon’s
Hard Case is specifically designed with the electronic
warrior in mind and is produced under license by an outfit
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
72 DIPS & CHIPS >>

KILL CODE Red Anya
> Nice piece of gear, but is it really a good idea for any
decker—or rigger, for that matter—to go full VR in the
middle of a firefight? No thanks, not for me.
> Pistons
SPINRAD GLOBAL/
PANTHEON INDUSTRIES
MERCURY-ALPHA BATTLEFIELD
SIGNAL BOOSTER
On the wireless battlefields of the Sixth World,
electronic warfare has greater significance than
ever before. Cutting off or limiting an enemy’s
ability to communicate while maintaining one’s
own is often a decisive factor in victory. The Mercury-Alpha
Signal Booster is designed to give PI-
Tac users/operators and their commanders additional
advantages during combat or for normal
use in remote areas.
The Mercury-Alpha consists of three components:
a main unit (or brain) that contains all necessary
hardware, software, batteries, and data ports;
a foldable/detachable micro-dish transmitter; and
an optional, hardened fiber-optic cable that can
directly link the brain and transmitter together.
The brain weighs only about 450g and comes in
a variety of shapes, depending on the user’s preference.
It attaches directly to a PI-Tac master unit,
commlink, cyberdeck, or RCC.
When in use, the Mercury-Alpha has three distinct
modes. The first is passive mode, which is
specifically designed to overcome most normal
obstacles, such as extreme distance or natural ob-
PANTHEON HARD CASE CCOB
ARMOR CAPACITY AVAIL COST
12/14* 8 12R 1,700¥
Rules: Provides protection for contents against physical
damage only. Does not stack with other armor.
Standard Upgrades: Drag handle, internal armored shell
(for RCC or cyberdecks) [14]*, 3 micro-hardpoints, quick-charge
battery pack.
GENERIC CCOB
ARMOR CAPACITY AVAIL COST
8 8 10 1,000¥
Rules: Does not stack with other armor
Standard Upgrades: Drag handle, micro-hardpoint, weapon
holster (SMG, shotgun, or assault rifle), quick-access medkit
pouch (up to Rating 4).
PERSONAL DRONE RACK
AVAIL
COST
12R 500¥
Rules: Can mount 3 micro drones or one small drone.
Requires one micro-hardpoint.

KILL CODE Details are still hush-hush, but what I’ve been able to dig
up is that Pantheon agreed to license the design and the
operating system code in exchange for SG manufacturing.
And of course, some corps are not happy about this.
> Pistons
> Of course not, since someone who is not them is making
money off their products! Only a matter of time before
someone goes after Pantheon. If they can find them.
> Mr. Bonds
PANTHEON INDUSTRIES
“MERCURY-ALPHA”
BATTLEFIELD SIGNAL BOOSTER
DR AVAIL COST
5 12R 3,500¥
Rules: Can only be used in one mode at a time; switching
modes is a Simple Action. In passive mode, provides a +4 dice pool
bonus against all sources of noise and doubles effective range.
In defensive and aggressive modes, provides +2 for pertinent
Electronic Warfare tests. Linked PI-Tac units can also distribute
some or all of their +2 bonuses to assist other operators without
a teamwork test; this requires a Simple Action. All functions and
bonuses are cumulative with tactical programs and associated
devices such as satellite links and re-trans units.
AVAIL
PANTHEON INDUSTRIES
MICRO-DISH TRANSMITTER
COST
10R 1,200¥
CYBERDECKS EX-SERIES
DECK COST AVAIL
Deck Rating (Deck Rating x 2)R Rating x 10,000¥
Attack — Rating^3 x 500¥
Sleaze — Rating^2 x 500¥
Data Processing — Rating^2 x 500¥
Firewall (Rating x 4)R Rating^3 x 500¥
AMMO
TYPE
DAMAGE
MOD
AP
MOD
AVAIL
COST (PER
10 ROUNDS)
E0-E0 — — 5R 50¥*
E0-E0 Rifle –4 –4 5R 100¥
Fuzzy rounds
LP, MP, AR 10R 30¥
HP, SMG, S 12R 50¥
Looper
1 7R 20¥
2 8R 30¥
3 9R 40¥
4 10R 50¥
5 11R 100¥
6 12R 200¥
Zapper rounds +0M — 12R 140¥
ARROWLINK
TYPE AVAIL COST
50m 6R 25¥
100m 8R 75¥
200m 10R 200¥
500m 12R 400¥
GRENADES
TYPE AVAIL COST
CoS 10R 500¥
Douser (Rating x 2)F Rating x 50¥
Fuzzy 10R 20¥ x Power
DumDum (Rating x 2)R Rating x 50¥
CYBERDECKS N-SERIES
DECK COST AVAIL
Deck Rating (Deck Rating x 2)R Rating x 5,000¥
Attack — Rating^3 x 500¥
Sleaze — Rating^2 x 500¥
Data Processing — Rating^2 x 500¥
Firewall — Rating^3 x 500¥
CYBERWARE & BIOWARE
ITEM ESS AVAIL COST
BioLink 0.5 10 15,000¥
Cranial Shield 0.5 12 5,000¥
Datajack plus 0.15 4 Rating x 3,500¥
EARRS 0.75 10R 30,000¥
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
74 DIPS & CHIPS >>

SECURITY CYBERDECKS
MODEL RATING ATT SLEAZE
DATA
PROC.
FIRE-
WALL AVAIL COST
Guard 2 3 1 2 4 3R 39,000¥
Programs: Encryption
Shield 4 4 1 3 5 6R 98,000¥
Programs: Encryption, Shell
Fortress 6 6 1 5 8 9R 377,000¥
Programs: Encryption, Shell, Armor
Great Wall 8 8 1 6 10 12R 774,000¥
Programs: Encryption, Shell, Armor, Biofeedback Filter
HUNTER CYBERDECKS
MODEL RATING ATT SLEAZE
DATA
PROC.
FIRE-
WALL AVAIL COST
Fox 2 4 1 3 4 4R 68,500¥
Programs: Track, Shell, Hammer
Wolf 4 5 1 4 5 8R 133,000¥
Programs: Track, Shell, Hammer, Decryption
Tiger 6 8 1 6 8 12R 530,000¥
Programs: Track, Shell, Hammer, Decryption, Hammer
Shark 8 10 1 8 10 16R 1,032,000¥
Programs: Track, Shell, Hammer, Decryption, Hammer, Mugger, Fork
MISC. CYBERDECKS
MODEL
RATING
ATTRIBUTE
ARRAY PROGRAMS AVAIL COST
Shadow Warrior 3 6 5 4 3 3 10R 225,000¥
Sublime 4 7 6 5 5 4 12R 375,000¥
Destiny Blade 4 7 6 5 5 4 12R 400,000¥
Defender 5 8 7 5 5 5 14R 560,000¥
Sleeper 4 7 5 5 4 4 14F 375,000¥
COMMLINKS & RCC
GEAR RATING DATA PROC. FIREWALL AVAIL COST
Cyber-6RCC 5 5 5 12R 72,000¥
Skirmisher 4 5 5 8R 50,000¥
Last Chance 3 3 3 11 5,000¥
Frequency 4 4 4 10 3,500¥
Flow 5 5 5 12 4,000¥
ARMOR
ITEM ARM CAP AVAIL COST
Generic CCOB 8 8 10 1,000¥
Hard Case
CCOB
12/14* 8 12R 1,700¥
MISC. ITEMS
>> KILL CODE

KILL CODE
DISK JOCKEYS &
LIGHTSTREAM RIDERS
There are a million hosts on the Matrix, and billions
upon billions of data points. Most of them are trivial
or obvious, which means one of the traits of a
quality hacker is to sort through the dross to find
the gold. There is no one right way to do this—the
right way is the one that works. This chapter has
qualities, complex forms, and Life Modules to
help hackers make themselves individual, distinct,
and capable of finding the Matrix’s most valuable
and tightly guarded secrets.
POSITIVE
QUALITIES
DECK BUILDER
COST: 4 KARMA
The character has been messing around with
tech their whole life; it was only a matter of time
before they found a way to push their deck’s hardware
further so that it could do more than it was
supposed to.
The character may install 1 additional cyberdeck
module (p. 64, Data Trails) into their deck.
This quality may only be selected once.
IMPENETRABLE LOGIC
COST: 3 KARMA
Some would call it precognition—this hacker
calls it quick thinking. When things in the Matrix
start going sideways, they keep their cool, maintain
their focus, and think their way around the
problem. Which may well be some brutal IC bearing
down on them.
This quality allows the character to use their
Logic in place of their Willpower attribute while
using Matrix Full Defense.
ROOTKIT
COST: 8 KARMA
The character knows how to find the crack in
any system, even if it’s a minuscule one. Getting
the code just right, and hitting that chain on its
weakest link take a lot of mental fortitude and accuracy.
A helping of luck doesn’t hurt.
As a Free Action, a character may take a –8 penalty
to their dice pool when they are performing
a Data Spike or Resonance Spike Action one that
same turn. On a successful hit, the character may
add their device rating to the DV of the attack.
SILENCE IS GOLDEN
COST: 9 KARMA
It might be anemia from all that soykaf, or perhaps
there’s something about the character—maybe
the Matrix just likes them. Whatever the case,
for some reason the ever-present noise of the Matrix
is muted near this character.
The noise penalty for the character and anyone
within ten meters of them is reduced by 2. Anyone
outside the radius who attempts to connect
to the character does not benefit from the noise
reduction.
NEGATIVE
QUALITIES
AVRSE
BONUS: 9 KARMA
The character knows too many hackers who
have been taken out while in VR, and they never
saw it coming. They see VR as a trap—how can you
get out of a bad situation if your consciousness is
not firmly inside your body? Unwilling to take that
sort of risk, the character has made AR their mode
of choice.
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
76 DISK JOCKEYS & LIGHTSTREAM RIDERS >>

When in VR, the character suffers a –4 penalty
to all actions if they are not in a secure location
(such as a secured lair or safehouse). This location
must be a place that they believe will not offer access
to anyone besides themselves and their closest
allies.
BASEMENT DWELLER
BONUS: 8 KARMA
The character didn’t have a lot of friends when
they were a kid … and now they still don’t have that
many. What friends the character has tend to be
on the Matrix, and the character’s social anxiety
prompts them to keep it that way. Basically, people
in real life are unpredictable and scary, and the
character would rather interface from the comfort
of their home.
The character suffers a –2 dice pool modifier for
all Social tests when meeting a someone in person
for the first time. This modifier does not apply to
second and subsequent encounters.
BIG BABY
BONUS: 4 KARMA
Pain is a fact of life in the Sixth World, and shadowrunners
know that better than most. While most
runners accept that they are going to get hurt and
are prepared to deal with it, others flinch from the
possibility of damage, and this gets more severe
each time they actually get hurt. When they’re
out on the job, if they are burned, shot, zapped,
punched, or otherwise damaged, the character
becomes extremely reluctant to rejoin the fray.
When a character with this quality is dealt Physical
damage, they suffer a –1 penalty to combat
dice pools until the enemy or obstacle that dealt
the damage is overcome or destroyed.
BUDDY SYSTEM
BONUS: 9 KARMA
Every runner knows that working with a team is
always safer than acting alone. Because of stories
they’ve heard or personal experience, the character
gets anxious when no one’s watching their back.
The character suffers a –2 to all Matrix actions
other than Matrix Perception and the Hide action if
they are alone, or a –1 penalty if they have an agent
slotted in or a sprite compiled to back them up.
DISCOMBOBULATED
BONUS: 12 KARMA
Whoever thought up simsense was a genius. A
character with this quality doesn’t want to imagine
life without it, especially because everything is a
little too real. Characters who suffer from discombobulation
experience feelings of disorientation
whenever they work in the physical world, without
virtual reality to steady their all-too-tactile hands.
The character receives a –2 dice pool modifier
to all tests when acting outside of AR or VR.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
BONUS: 2 KARMA (MAX 4)
The character is a sucker for clickbait, even
when it’s obvious that it has nothing to do with the
search they’re pursuing. They’ll start searching for
building schematics for a heist, and end reading
rumors about Dunkelzahn’s assassination. How
did the search lead them there? No idea, but at
least they learned a lot of rubbish along the way.
For each level of Down the Rabbit Hole (maximum
4), reduce the number of 1s necessary to roll
a glitch by one whenever the character attempts
to search the Matrix (so that on a roll of 8 dice with
two levels of the quality, the character can glitch
with only three 1s, instead of the normal five).
The gamemaster may also require the character

KILL CODE >

KILL CODE

KILL CODE >

KILL CODE

PARALLEL
PROCESSING
BY AMY VEERES
Respec stared up at the ceiling in thought, reclining
in the rear of Netcat’s Econovan. Their transport for
tonight’s run was an inconspicuous panel van loaded
with medkits, tools, hidden guns, emergency commlinks,
and most importantly, the object Respec was
lounging on while Netcat drove. It was a surprisingly
comfortable sofa for extra passengers, willing or
otherwise—definitely a step up from the hard-plastic
ambulance seats found in most shadowrunner transports.
And way more comfortable to lay down on.
For a moment, the absurdity of her situation struck
Respec. Netcat had far more experience than her,
so it seemed natural to let her take the lead. Except
for the fact that Respec was at least fifty years older
than the other technomancer. The first-generation elf
pinched the bridge of her nose, realizing this was a
problem that an astronomically low number of people
could ever relate to. It was her burden to bear.
She climbed out of the van’s rear, having uploaded
the mission parameters, required passcodes, and
other data from the prep stage to a nanomemory
tattoo between her toes. Nobody but weirdos bother
to look there. Netcat was next out. Both of them
wore dark armored clothing that might be passable
as something a nightshift security agent might wear,
though with no colors or logos specific to their target.
On Respec’s hip rested a completely average-looking
commlink. Specifically, the kind security guards
at the Makoto Shiranui Memorial Hospital, Brought
To You By Mitsuhama Computer Technologies were
issued. The pair checked each other’s disguises before
walking in opposite directions toward separate
hospital entrances, outerwear for the chilly February
night concealing weapons and other contraband. In
a private link, they reviewed their plan.
Respec winced in meatspace, doing her best to
focus back on the Matrix and ignore the chill of the
night blowing through her trenchcoat.
> PARALLEL PROCESSING

virtuakinetic children. Test their level of technomancy
and decide whether to keep them for further study
or send them overseas for experiments.> The taller
elf turned a pale green as AROs she had uncovered
of the experiments flashed in front of her. Respec
looked ready to vomit before downing a handful of
pills from one of her coat’s pockets, dosing herself
with an antinausea med that returned her face to its
normal pasty pallor. She went back to her message.
Respec closed her eyes and
placed a hand over the display, just above the biometric
scanner. She focused her mind and broke
through the wave of fading washing past her as her
complex forms went to work. The door opened with
Respec none the worse for wear.
Meanwhile, one of Netcat’s sprites flew into the
first security terminal she encountered, and in just a
couple seconds, the display welcomed Guard #631
for her night shift. The tacsoft indicated to both of
them that the closest doors were unlocked, so Netcat
continued reviewing the details.
The avatar of Respec in Netcat’s periphery, a silver-haired
woman from some positively ancient simgame,
gave a shaky thumb up.
Netcat’s avatar, her real-life self with her features
disguised in a green aura, recoiled suddenly. Netcat shook her head in the real world
and began preparing a new array of sprites, these
ones taking the form of glowing datachips, as was
her habit. Respec likewise prepared herself, using a
pistol-slide to deposit an array of datachips in her
hands. Crushing them in a silent prayer to 01, she
used the ritual to gather focus and put her concentration
where it needed to be.
Netcat messaged, while
Respec was still threading a complex form to open
the lock on her entrance. She eventually caught up to
Netcat, who waited with an agitated look but offered
no comment. They silently exited the dark, empty
lobby, entering the hospital to begin their rescue
mission.
Respec began by connecting to the hospital’s
host, another complex form shielding her from the
spider’s eyes as she edited herself out of camera
feeds in real time, meeting Netcat in a corner undetected
by any security devices. The two squatted and
watched opposite ends of the hallway, both ready to
draw a weapon if a guard came along. Respec had
brought long-range stun devices among what she
called “some other stuff for emergencies,” while
Netcat kept a light pistol—silenced, of course—in a
shoulder holster beneath her jacket.
Respec inquired, staring down
through the darkness at the end of the hallway.
Netcat couldn’t hide the smile poking
at the corners of her mouth. Respec understood—
technos weren’t expected to display any physical
skills, so when you got a chance to flash some of
them, you took it.
Respec followed behind Netcat, who led her down
the hall, staying one step ahead of the rent-a-cops
and the spider. By the time they made it to the firstfloor
security room (where the spider was based), the
map Netcat had acquired before the run appeared on
their AR displays. Flashing dots revealed the locations
of the guards, while lighter circles around each of
them representing their sensory ranges. None were
near the security room they were about to breach.
Respec drew her weapon and nodded to her partner.
Netcat grabbed the door handle. One of her
sprites flew into the door, and it unlocked silently.
She pushed it open, and Respec fired three darts
into the back of the dwarf inside, who fell out of his
chair with a soft thud. Respec let her partner in after
the dwarf was incapacitated, kneeling over his prone
form while Netcat took his seat and began diverting
security.
Respec
inquired, bricking the unconscious spider’s cyberdeck,
emergency commlink, and any cyberware that
looked like it might make her life more difficult.
Netcat’s text actually paused. Both of the elves’ fingers
brushed across opposite ends of the security terminal,
enough to establish a connection. Before entering
the building’s host, Netcat “spoke” again.
>> PARALLEL PROCESSING

In VR, their icons appeared next to each other
inside the hospital’s host. Respec conjured up the
map again, this time showing each floor. Netcat
stopped preparing her hack and watched her partner
curiously.
Respec sent.
Respec produced some indeterminate data from
inside her icon and pressed it into the security terminal’s
icon. Eventually, it sunk into the transparent
block, which lit up green. From there, she typed
furiously; in reality, and in VR, a message went out
through the hospital’s PA system.
Words rang out. “Security personnel report to the
fifth floor for a code gold. Repeat, code gold on the
fifth floor. Further instructions will be given on arrival.”
The message then repeated in Japanese.
The system would also send similar text messages
to all security personnel. “Code gold” meant a
high-priority, high-security individual was coming in,
the type of person who should be the focus of security
efforts. It was the type of distraction that would
only last until everyone figured out it was fake, but
that should be long enough.
Netcat and Respec turned back to the map, watching
as the dots Respec highlighted rushed to the top
floor. Once the last one had left the elevator, Respec
turned around and continued the second stage of her
plan.
she sent after a few moments.
Netcat asked. There was, of
course, no tone on the brief text, but Respec imagined
she could sense the trepidation.
The two technomancers returned to their meat
bodies. Respec tried not to look too pleased with
herself.
Netcat did not let her stay too self-satisfied. She
spoke aloud for a change of pace. “Just remember,
not every guard went to the fifth floor. You got some
out of the way, but we still might run into trouble.”
She patted Respec’s shoulder as she walked by, then
gathered their things and left the security room. Respec
did the same trick on the terminal and the security
room’s lock on the way out, keeping the spider’s
movements restricted. Assuming he woke up before
the job was done.
The two technomancers made their way to the
hidden basement access. They moved quickly and
smoothly. What security hadn’t gone to the fifth floor
did not show up in their path, and the spider was
down for the count. This would probably be the easiest
stretch of the run.
Halfway down the hall, Respec began laying out a set
of palm-sized metallic devices, two stuck to the walls
and one on the floor. As she finished up, she paused
and breathed deeply. Preparing herself. Waiting for the
devices to do what they were supposed to do.
After long enough for the silence to become awkward,
Respec picked up the devices and pointed to
an inconspicuous closet door.
Netcat didn’t say anything, though her usual stoic
expression softened somewhat.
“I don’t know what this is going to be, exactly,” she
said aloud. “It’s not going to be good. They never pay
us to break into places that are good.”
“It will be the job, and we’ll deal with whatever it
is. And later, we’ll erase from our memories whatever
we can’t bear to keep.”
Respec’s fingers brushed across the bezel of
the biometric/keycard combination lock. The panel
turned green, and the last of the sprite cluster Netcat
compiled at the beginning of the run rushed through
the widening crack to disable the gun turret on the
other side of the door.
Respec took up the rear, holstering her stungun.
Netcat led the way
through a dank hallway to an elevator. They entered,
and as they sped downwards, Respec’s device pinged
inside her bag.
After Netcat received the message, she nodded
and drew her Predator V, while Respec took out
her two-generations-old Predator III.
A few minutes and a half-dozen floors later, the
elevator opened into a dimly lit, suffocatingly sterile
hallway. Before they had a chance to step off of
the elevator, they were stopped by a wave of miasma
code spreading through the building’s host into their
PANs and resonance link. Netcat tried to send a message,
but all that came out was discordant noise. So
they turned again to their voices
“That’s one hell of a drone.”
“Are we totally sure it’s a drone?”
The conversation was cut short by the screech
of metal scraping plascrete floors. Heavy footsteps
combined with loud servomotors and metallic
sounds joined them as the creature patrolling the
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
84 >> PARALLEL PROCESSING

halls turned a corner, trudging along a path walked
so often that a pattern was worn into the hard tiles.
In spite of her low-light vision, Respec found herself
unable to focus on the creature’s form as it rounded
the corner. It was armored, bulky, and gave off a
jaw-aching burr of dissonant noise.
“We should have brought more hardware than
a stun-gun and a pistol each. How are we going to
bring down that … thing? And if it gets close … I don’t
even want to think about it.”
Netcat holstered her pistol and shook her head.
Respec desperately tried to urge an idea to leap from
somewhere—anywhere—into her brain.
Netcat spoke before any idea arrived. “We can’t
scrub the mission and come back with more firepower.
Security will be on to us after that code gold
stunt. This is our only chance.”
“That’s great, but how are we supposed to deal
with that biodrone?!”
“I have a plan.” Netcat stood and flexed both
knees. “Get ready to bolt. You can hear it turning the
corner now.”
Netcat was the first of the two to run for it, with
Respec following and attempting to quell a rising
panic. The pair’s footsteps attracted the cyberthing’s
attention, but it couldn’t turn around. It could
only trudge down the hall on the route laid out by
its IR camera-eyes, passing bedridden children and
adolescents who were hooked up to IVs and trodes
linked to a master terminal at the end of the room.
“All right, let’s get it done,” Netcat said. “Stop
whatever the terminals are doing to the kids. I think
I have something to hold the drone off.” Netcat
spread her arms and waved them forward to direct
flecks of AR data in front of her. Eventually, the errant
code took the shape of a cartoonish knight wielding
a sword and shield. It wasn’t like the tiny creatures
she usually summoned—it was metahuman-size and
ready to do battle.
“Great form sprite, morkhan!” Once formed, the
sprite rushed off to do battle with the biodrone,
keeping it distracted while its summoner began unhooking
the IVs.
“Mor-what now?” Respec raised an eyebrow at
Netcat while her AR avatar dealt with the agent keeping
the test subjects in hot-sim VR.
“The hell kind of elf doesn’t even know how to
swear in Sperethiel?”
“The kind whose parents were human. I don’t
know! Swear in Japanese like the rest of us!” Respec
continued to work on the code while Netcat finished
with everything except the VR electrodes.
Out of nowhere, the fight in the halls dragged into
the lab, where the sprite, corrupted and falling apart
from extended exposure to dissonance, was barely
holding off something that was most certainly not a
biodrone.
The two shadowrunners could finally see what
was between them and the exit. It was an ork woman
covered in grimy metal plating, blades for hands, and
oversized cyberlegs for balance. The only traces of
her metahumanity were the ragged hair around her
skull and the tusks sticking out of a lipless mouth. It
was a dissonant cyberzombie. It had to be, because
Respec did not want to consider what else the form
in front of her might be.
It hadn’t showed up at a good time. Netcat had
fallen to her knees thanks to the fading brought on
by her sprite’s destruction. The cyberzombie felt the
weakness and turned to face her, raising a blade-arm.
A deafening crack sounded out. As the great form
sprite fell apart, the cyberzombie collapsed, sparks
and brains flying from the hole where the back of its
skull used to be.
Respec’s gun was still smoking. Unable to hear
over the ringing from the point-blank gunshot that
took the cyberzombie down, she spoke in Resonance
instead.
Netcat laughed, a forced, nervous sound but still
quite welcome at this moment.
As the excitement faded, her smile softened.
Respec started dragging the corpse into
the hallway’s center column.
Netcat finished unhooking their targets,
knowing the job was only halfway over. Then
she asked Respec a question that she clearly should
have been ready for but was dismayed to find out
she’s not.
>> PARALLEL PROCESSING

KILL CODE
DATA
STREAMS
POSTED BY: CLOCKWORK
It’s been a few weeks, and since neither of the
knife-ear toasterfuckers have had anything to say
about recent developments, it looks like the honor
of explaining what they’re up to now falls to
me. I can’t in good conscience let you guys go
without knowing the latest in expanding technomancer
powers. Forewarned is forearmed and all
that. But buckle up, because things in these parts
aren’t getting any less scary.
Those of you who aren’t completely fresh might
remember five or six years ago, when technomancers
had these things, streams, that basically
worked like a mage’s traditions. They were something
you had to watch out for, but they could go on
page two of the dossier when you looked at the full
range of technomancer threats. It wasn’t critical information.
With the lovely Ms. de la Mar’s overhaul,
the technos got a big power drop, and one of the
things that seemingly became disconnected were
these streams. What a happy day that was …
Guess what? They’re back. Or at least, something
similar enough I figure the name “stream” is
as good a way to describe them as any. It’s like
the Matrix is cheating, and not in our favor. Not
to worry, JackPoint, because this time, I’m on your
side. I’ll walk you through each and every permutation
of technomancy and what it lets them do.
All the better when you’re worrying about one
flash-frying your targeting system without knowing
you’re there, or turning your drones on you, or
jumping three stories with off-the-rack cyberlegs.
Think those were jokes? Tall tales? Think again.
HOW THEY FLOW
To borrow a cliché that was outdated when my
dad was still alive, these ain’t your granddad’s
streams. If I had to compare them to something
magical (which I do, because I know it pisses
off Respec), I’d compare them to adept ways instead
of magical traditions. They’ve completely
changed to fit a new role in the Matrix, or are
possibly a different thing entirely, and I’m very
sad to report that they’ve given technomancers
whole new toolkits. They’re not just freaky mind
deckers anymore. Now they can be freaky mind
riggers, summon sprites like they’re going out of
style, and even use some cyberware. Yeah, this
sounds unbelievable, but keep reading. These are
real. The intel is solid. Mitsuhama doesn’t play
around with technomancer rumors.
> And the other shoe drops. What do we think?
> Slamm-0!
> As long as he’s sharing and doing nothing malicious, I say
we let him finish. Deal with him when he tries to act.
> Bull
> Agreed, begrudgingly.
> Glitch
SOURCERERS
You could call these guys the old-school technomancers.
Not Otaku old-school, but the first
generation, where sprites were an afterthought
and the novahot technos were slinging complex
forms that no mundane code could keep up with.
That’s what this stream is all about. They can
thread harder, faster, and sustain more forms at
once than their peers. Even worse, when they get
to their Hyperthreading ability, I’m not sure even
the best hardware and the best mind on this rock
could match one of these freaks in sheer hacking
ability. The only thing I can think of off the top
of my head that might (key word: might) be able
to outhack them is one of the abominations that
technoshamans can summon, but that’s for the
next section.
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
86 DATA STREAMS >>

Could you leave off the editorializing? Every time you say
something like ‘abomination,’ I get worried you’re about
to post your manifesto.
> Glitch
> To be honest, this is an excerpt from it. I could share the
entire thing if you like.
> Clockwork
> No.
> Glitch
> It always helps to remember that Clockwork is acting as
his own hype man for the tunes he’s trying to mix. In other
words, see hyperbole for what it is.
> Pistons
If you have to start slinging code against one,
I suggest putting them in a situation where they
need to rely on sprites, or GOD is about to converge.
That should counteract most of their cheats.
And hey, even if the second case doesn’t solve
your problems directly, there’s always the chance
they’ll piss GOD off enough that an Avenging Angel
gets sent in to blow the fragger to bits. Just
make sure you aren’t in the same zip code as them
when that happens. Of course, that’s only if you
have to start slinging code. Ideally, you should just
shoot them. Doesn’t matter how good a Sourcerer
is, they still can’t hack a piece of copper-jacketed
lead moving at nine hundred meters per second.
TECHNOSHAMANS
In case the name didn’t clue you in, this stream
takes a more spiritual approach to technomancy.
They may not be as good with complex forms
as Sourcerers, but what they bring to the table is
somehow more horrifying. Anyone who’s dealt
with technomancers since the Matrix overhaul
knows how bulldrek sprites are, and Technoshamans
double down on that. They almost always
have at least one of the awful things around, and
most likely will have far more than that. And of
course, because there is a God, and He hates me,
every single fragging Technoshaman having a literal
army of sprites isn’t even the most terrifying
thing about them!
No, the most terrifying thing about Technoshamans
would have to be great form sprites. I
… I don’t know how to describe their capabilities
in the usual sterile manner, so instead I’m going
to tell you a little story. A while back, I was on
a run trying to steal a prototype weapon from
an Ares lab. The complication? There was another
team of runners trying to steal the same
gun. Anyway, I was trying to hack into the lab’s
host, see if I could get their gun turrets to turn
on the lab security. Anyway, in waltzes the Technoshaman,
plain as day, his persona appearing
as this ugly humanoid thing made entirely out
of feathers. Fragger looked out at the army of
Black IC and spoke a few words in a language
that was old when the stars were new. (I didn’t
hear enough to be sure, but I think it might
have been COBOL.) Anyway, whatever it was,
the thing it brought forth … I’ll never forget it.
A giant crow of silicon and fiber-optics, large
enough that, if there were a sun inside the Matrix,
it would have blotted it out. Then, with a
flap of its wing, the ghostdammed thing blew
down the entire host. That’s a Technoshaman.
That’s what they do.
> That’s really poetic. I’m kinda surprised to see something
like that on here at all, especially coming from you.
> Red
> I’m not being poetic. That is literally what happened. It
took the host of a top-secret Ares lab down in the time it
takes someone in meatspace to blink.
> Clockwork

KILL CODE What? Taking down a host is impossible. I’d put money on
it.
> /dev/grrl
> I’m just telling you what I saw. I don’t know how I can
make it any clearer. Sourcerers? Machinists? I can handle
them. Technoshamans? They scare me.
> Clockwork
MACHINISTS
Since I’m fairly certain everyone here needs a
break from the terrifying realization that there
are toasterfuckers out there who can take down
hosts with a wave of their hand, let’s switch to a
happier subject. Machinists! The worst they can
do is kill you. Machinists aren’t as good with complex
forms as Sourcerers, and they can’t summon
sprites the way a Technoshaman can, but what
they can do is hijack your rotodrones and have
them give you a terminal case of lead poisoning.
Their hacking abilities are mild at best, but even
if your devices are secure enough that they can’t
get at your drones, they usually come with several
of their own. Think of them as riggers who
happen to hack on occasion, like if I had an army
of evil twins or something.
Anyway, when fighting them, expect the kind
of threats you’d usually expect from a rigger. You
could be up against anything from weather balloons
with chameleon coating and sniper rifles
to a NeoNET Juggernaut coated with so much armor
that the only ways to defeat it are to go to the
nearest IJN base and see if they’ll let you borrow a
battlecruiser, or to go up a flight of stairs.
> Are you speaking from experience here?
> Rigger X
> Suffice to say it was the worst investment I’ve ever made.
The armor plate alone set me back thousands. Five runs
later and I’m still in the red.
> Clockwork
CYBERADEPTS
To finish this all off, we have what are simultaneously
the most and least terrifying of the various
techno breeds: Cyberadepts. The name’s probably
already given away what it is they do. Somehow,
they manage to deal with cyberware in a
way most technomancers can’t. This might not
seem like a big deal until you see a novacoked-up
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
88 DATA STREAMS >>

KILL CODE Shame it leaves such a mess, though. I was picking bits
of cyberskull out of my fender for days after the last time I
did that.
> Rigger X
> There’s professional cleaner services you can get to deal
with that kind of thing, no questions asked. They cost a
mint, but it’s worth every nuyen.
> Clockwork
One thing that should be noted is that unlike
real adepts, they have no issues when it comes to
working their witchcraft with guns. Whereas an
actual adept can’t get a gun made into a weapon
focus because reasons I don’t really understand
(I’m a techie, not a professor of thaumatology), a
cyberadept can and will use guns to do things that
you wouldn’t believe. That guy I mentioned, with
the magic cybereyes? He once ricocheted a bullet
off an exposed nail in a wall to hit an Azzie cultist
in the back without harming the cultist’s hostage. I
saw it and I still have a hard time believing it.
> I mean, I can do that too.
> Kat o’ Nine Tales
> Vids or it didn’t happen.
> Clockwork
NEW TECHNOMANCER
QUALITIES:
RESONANT STREAMS
Aside from being extremely technical in nature,
the Resonance’s constantly shifting nature makes
it unpredictable and very malleable. This flow
must be followed by any technomancer seeking
to manipulate and control the Resonance. Some
technomancers have found that identifying a
path to power helps them to focus their abilities.
These paths are called Streams. For all technomancers,
there are several fundamental rules to
streams that must be followed:
• A technomancer cannot follow two streams
simultaneously.
• Players may amend previously created characters
and retroactively purchase a stream.
• Streams cost 20 Karma to purchase and are
not subject to the double cost of qualities
after creation.
Daemons are a new type of bonus. Like their
name suggests, these are autonomous processes
that the technomancer learns to keep running
always. Mechanically speaking, these are passive
bonuses that affect a specific aspect of the
character, giving them either a new power or an
improvement to an existing power. Every stream
has an associated Daemon, along with other benefits
that help to provide the stream with flavor.
The complex form listed with the stream becomes
available for purchase by technomancers in that
stream, but it is not automatically given to them.
These complex forms are only available to technomancers
in those particular streams.
CYBERADEPTS
One of the effects of the recent changes to the
Resonance and the Matrix was the unexpected
advent of what many are calling Cyberadepts.
These are technomancers who have the uncanny
ability to modify the way the Resonance interacts
with cyberware.
BENEFITS
• All complex forms that affect cyberware
are performed with 2 less Fading Value.
• +2 dice pool bonus to Compiling and Decompiling
Tests involving Fault and Companion
sprites.

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IN THE FLOW
There is no possible way to spend a higher portion of
your life online than technomancers, because there
is no percentage higher than one hundred. They
have all the time in the world and a lot of individuality,
so that results in a full range of approaches to interacting
with the Matrix. This chapter covers some
of the complex forms, sprites, qualities, and echoes
that make technomancers distinct. Here, then, are
ways for technomancers to show how they have become
true individuals.
COMPLEX FORMS
Complex forms help technomancers make their
mark on the Matrix, threading up the right tool at
the right time. Here are a few more tools that, at
some point in time, might be the right one.
ARC FEEDBACK
Target: Icon Duration: S FV: L – 2
Arc Feedback grants the technomancer the ability
to catch some of the energy of a successful attack
against them and send it back toward the attacker.
While a technomancer is sustaining this form,
every time they receive Matrix damage—that is to
say, damage remaining after any and all resistance
rolls—they roll Software + Resonance [Level] v. Willpower
+ Firewall of the attacker. If the test succeeds,
the damage the technomancer was not able to resist
is reflected back to the attacker at a ratio of 1 point of
damage for every 2 inflicted on the technomancer.
Net hits on the test increase the damage, and the total
damage must be resisted by the original attacker.
Damage reflected back on the attacker does not reduce
the damage taken by the technomancer.
BOOTLEG PROGRAM
Target: Device Duration: I FV: L – 2
Target a device and make an opposed Software
+ Resonance [Level] vs. Willpower + Firewall test.
On a successful test, the technomancer may copy
the effects of one program currently running on the
device for a number of combat turns equal to the
number of net hits.
This complex form may not copy an agent or a
program the technomancer already knows as a Resonance
[program] echo (p. 258, SR5). A technomancer
may only benefir from one Bootleg Program at a time;
threading a new Bootleg Program complex form cancels
any remaing effects of the previous one.
HOST EMULATOR
Target: Self Duration: P FV: L
Sometimes the target needs to believe that
they’re in a regular host doing typical things when
a runner needs that target to be doing anything but
that. And sometimes a little illusion is all you need
to log a target’s keystrokes or get their banking
PINs. Whatever it is, it’s always better to have a host
emulator in your back pocket, just in case.
When threading the Host Emulator complex
form, a technomancer makes a Software + Resonance
[Level] simple test. They create a host that
looks legitimate, but is not, though the pseudo-host
does appear to have been created through official
channels. This pseudo-host seems functional but
does not store any data and cannot make or run IC.
The technomancer may attempt to make the
pseudo-host appear to be a host that already exists,
if they have at least one mark on that host
when this complex form is threaded. Anyone
entering it may realize it’s not a real host by performing
a Matrix Perception test, with a threshold
equal to the number of hits rolled when threading
this complex form.
In the event that someone attempts to hack the
host, treat the pseudo-host’s rating as (2 x number
of hits on the threading test). If the hack is successful,
the hacker gets marks on the technomancer
and sees through the illusion.
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
94 IN THE FLOW >>

This complex form may be dismissed by the
technomancer as a Simple Action.
MIRRORED PERSONA
Target: Self Duration: I FV: L – 2
You can create a proxy persona that looks and
acts identical to you in the Matrix. To differentiate
between the technomancer and the proxy, opponents
must succeed on a Matrix Perception test
with a threshold of the number of hits rolled when
threading this form.
If they fail to notice, opponents target the proxy
with a Matrix Action. The player rolls a defense test
as normal. If they succeed, the proxy disappears,
and technomancer character takes no negative effect.
PINCH
Target: Self Duration: S FV: L + 2
When you’re caught in the crossfire, sometimes
the only thing to do is burn down everything
around you.
If a technomancer is sustaining this form when
their Matrix condition monitor becomes full or
when they are otherwise forcibly removed from
the Matrix, all icons the technomancer has marks
on and all icons that have marks on the technomancer
take Matrix damage equal to the level of
the complex form. This damage may be resisted.
If a technomancer is removed by the fade damage
from threading this form, the form fizzles and
returns to the fabric of the Resonance before it can
take effect.
PRIMED CHARGE
Target: Self Duration: I FV: L
When a technomancer harnesses the raw power
of the Resonance, it can make any obstacle that
gets in their way regret its choices.
Make a Software + Resonance [Level] test. The
next Matrix action you perform gains a dice pool
bonus equal to the number of hits on this test.
RESONANCE BIND
Target: Persona Duration: S FV: L – 2
Need to slow the opposition down? Snag
them in a Resonance Bind that hinders all actions
in the Matrix.
Make a Software + Resonance [Level] v. Intuition
+ Data Processing opposed test. On a successful
attack, each net hit reduces the target’s Initiative
Score by 2. If you sustain the complex form,
the target loses the same amount from their Initiative
Score at the beginning of each combat turn.
A target caught in Resonance Bind may attempt
to break free of the binding by making a
Cybercombat + Logic [Attack/Sleaze] v. the complex
form’s Level x 2 opposed test. Success only
means that they stop future Initiative Score loss;
they do not regain any points of Initiative Score in
the present Combat Turn.
RESONANCE CACHE
Target: IC Duration: I FV: L – 2
The technomancer pushes a single IC into a
stream of Resonance that isolates it, effectively locking
it away. Make a Software + Resonance [Level] v.
Host Rating x 2 opposed test. On a successful test,
the IC is locked in a Resonance fold for a number of
combat turns equal to the complex form’s level.
SEARCH HISTORY
Target: Device Duration: I FV: L – 2
Target a device and make a Software + Resonance
[Level] v. Device Rating x 2 opposed test.
On a successful test, the technomancer has a full
record of the device’s Matrix history over a number
of days past equal to the number of net hits.

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Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

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A MILLION
ICONS BLOOM
POSTED BY: DEMONSEED ELITE
Techomancers have one core thing in common.
Beyond that, we have plenty of differences, and
like any such people, we can’t resist the appeal of
associating with those who are different, so long
as their differences are like ours. Here, then, are
some notes about the virtual tribes of the Sixth
World, where technomancers can gather with others
who share their talent and inclinations—and
how to make themselves distinct from the other
people who are sort of like them, but not really.
WHAT IS A
VIRTUAL TRIBE?
When technomancers get together and work
closely for a time, bonds form within the group.
That bond makes it easier to get in touch with
the Resonance, and it can help groups of technomancers
get in touch with Paragons, entities of
the Deep Resonance that can guide them.
Not all tribes are focused on hacking. Many
technomancers were not hackers when they felt
the Resonance for the first time. Most technomancers
eventually do learn to hack, both out of
self-defense, and because hacking is just manipulating
programs, which is easy when you can see
the threads underneath the code.
So, if you go looking for a tribe, you will find
hackers — natch — but you will also find truck drivers,
stuffer-shack counter-jockeys, mid-level managers,
factory workers, and Lone Star beat-cops.
Most of them use their varied backgrounds to help
out their brothers and sisters. One technomancer,
someone I have known for years, works a day job
as a sushi chef in the cafeteria of one of the Japanacorps.
They have never suspected her secret,
mostly because she doesn’t hack while at work.
It must be hard resisting the temptation, but she
apparently manages to keep her work and home
life separate.
> Good advice for runners as well, if you bother having a
day job.
> Bull
Knowing that your landlord, unemployed
neighbor, barista, or hairdresser, could be a
Technomancers who join a virtual tribe (otherwise known as a
“submersion group”) gain some mechanical benefits.
Submersion costs [10 + (new Submersion grade x 3)] are
reduced by 10 percent (rounded down) to reflect the support
of more experienced technomancers guiding and helping the
technomancer who is undergoing submersion.
The tribe counts as a group contact and can often source
equipment or chemicals, the real-world substances that can help
build materials to access the virtual.
The tribe also counts as having a tutor for Resonance skills and
abilities.
Some tribes also have a paragon mentor. Joining a mentored
SUBMERSION GROUPS
tribe gives all the benefits and drawbacks of having that paragon
for as long as the technomancer is a member.
Each virtual tribe may have one or more strictures that it follows
(see p. 110).
Leaving a submersion group voluntarily takes an hour of work
with at least two members. Ejecting a member involuntarily requires
an hour of work from at least half of the remaining members.
Members of a group are bound together by the Resonance;
when connected to the Matrix, or in any of the Resonance realms,
technomancers who can see the icon of another member in the
Matrix can tell with a Matrix Perception test if the member is in
compliance with the group’s strictures.
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
106 A MILLION ICONS BLOOM >>

technomancer causes angst for people who already
fear technomancers … we could be literally
anywhere.
We aren’t everywhere.
We are, in fact, hardly anywhere. Whatever created
technomancers never exactly made many of
us, and then we’ve had purges and persecutions.
It’s a wonder there are any of us left, but there do
seem to be a few more every year.
> Sure, “There are hardly any of us.” That’s just what they
want you to think.
> Plan 9
HOW TO GET IN
TOUCH WITH AN
EXISTING TRIBE
Paranoia makes technomancer tribes hard to
find. Technomancers have been chased and persecuted
for years now, and groups who support
technomancers openly have been stomped on
by megacorps, or infiltrated by corporate intel
teams, so that any technomancers a group is in
contact with can be tracked down and disappeared
into research labs.
It’s not so much that tribes have gone to
ground; more that the ones that survived never
left the ground in the first place. This makes it
hard to hook up with new groups, but not impossible.
Some tribes seek out technomancers and
try to give them a hand to survive. If you are really
lucky, when you first emerge and are too n00b
to properly protect yourself, one of these groups
will find you, and you’ll be able to join right off
the bat. New technomancers tend to act in predictable
ways in the Resonance, and if another
technomancer is around, they will notice that
someone is resonant. Deckers might not notice a
new technomancer, assuming it’s some kid with
a cheap deck, but another technomancer will. As
long as the experienced technomancer is not a
heartless sellout, they will at least send a message
around that there is a new technomancer,
and most will hang around for a while to protect
the fledgling until they can fly. It may not last for
long, it’s not like we ain’t got shit to do. It might
even be that a sympathetic virtual tribe doesn’t
get the message, or doesn’t have the resources
to help. Sucks to be the fledgling, but the majority
of technomancers didn’t get help to start with, so
newbies have the same chance that most of us
have had.
> How many have you kept from metaphorically walking
into traffic, Netcat?
> 2XL
> Enough. Some have made me sorry that I did.
> Netcat
If you aren’t one of the lucky ones who got a
tribe in your soy-flakes, you have to go looking.
Finding technomancers is tricky, but not impossible,
and when you find technomancers, there are
pretty good odds that one will be in a tribe. Thing
is, you have to go looking in places on the Matrix
where you think technomancers might hang
out, which is where everyone else thinks technomancers
hang out, including technomancer hunters.
Those are the worst places to be if you are a
technomancer.
The easiest way to find a tribe is to do your research.
You’re a fragging wizard on the Matrix, so
act like it, omae! Information about virtual tribes is
around in posts like this one, deep in the Matrix,
hidden in protected message boards. Once you
know about a tribe, you can make a guess about
how to contact it. When you think you’ve found a
host where the tribe you hope to join is hanging
out, the best way to extend a greeting is to send in
a sprite with a message.

KILL CODE It must be nice to have some backup—the closest I have to
a bunch of droogs is you lot.
> Glitch
> It must be nice not to have people hunting you down for
something you can’t control.
> Respec
> Well … any more than runners normally get hunted down.
> Puck
Hey, I get it, you’re flush with Resonance and
enjoying your own power! Why should you join
with those technomancer losers when you could
have a totally rad gang of virtual adepts of your
own to boss around and make a splash? Why not?
I say go for it—virtual tribes come from somewhere,
maybe you’ll make it big.
There isn’t a lot that you have to do to make your
own tribe. You need to get together with some
other technomancers (and maybe free sprites)
and then promise that you’ll watch one another’s
backs. That’s it. If you want to do some funky Resonance
stuff as a group, there are a couple more
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
108 A MILLION ICONS BLOOM >>

KILL CODE This just looks like putting together a crew, how hard is
that?
> Marcos
> Easy for you, you’re an experienced gun-runner. It’s a lot
harder for some of us.
> Hannibelle
> There are a few of us who don’t get on that well with other
people. It goes against our grain.
> Cayman

KILL CODE Wait, so there are buckets of rules for people to follow?
What’s the point? Isn’t the Matrix all about freedom and
doing whatever the hell you want?
> Tolstoi
> You are free to join the group or not, but like many social
groups, there are rules, and if you break the rules you get
kicked out. That’s true for technomancers as much as for
anarchists like you.
> /dev/grrl
ATTENDANCE
The group meets on a regular basis; each member
must attend at least 75 percent of the scheduled
meetings or they have broken this stricture. No
one likes tribe mates who never come on raids.
CHARITY
GROUP STRICTURES
A virtual tribe can choose rules that each of the members
must adhere to. Breaking a stricture means that the member
is no longer a part of the group until they apologize and make
it up in some way. This can cause a group to dissolve entirely
if there is only one person (or even no people) who have kept
the rules.
A technomancer who breaks one or more group strictures
increases all Fading Values by one for each broken stricture,
for every Resonance action that involves Fading, until the
technomancer earns forgiveness from the rest of the tribe.
The list of strictures in this chapter is not exhaustive; any
clear behavior can become a stricture with approval from the
gamemaster.
The group is focused on white-hat activities. Each
member is expected to contribute time, money,
goods, or expertise to people who need it. The
stricture is held if the technomancer has completed
at least one act of charity in the past month;
otherwise, it’s broken.
CORRECTION
A tribe that chooses this believes that they have a
duty to correct wrong information when they find
it. There is a limit to the amount of correction that
a technomancer can complete in a day, so a technomancer
is not expected to correct every scrap
of information they come across. Where the member
can correct a significant piece of information,
but chooses not to, they violate the stricture.
> I’d be surprised if anyone wrote “Grammer Pedant” into
the rules of their little technomancer group.
> Riot
> That’s “Grammar Pedant” to you.
> /dev/grrl
DEED
The tribe needs something done, usually of significant
size. Every couple of months, the members
are expected to spend anywhere from half
a day to most of a week working on a significant
task for the group. Often this involves hacking
someone big.
DEFENDER
A tribe choosing this stricture believes in protecting
fellow technomancers. These technomancers
are often the ones who answer the call when
someone puts out the word for a flash tribe. A
member who refuses a call for help violates this
stricture. This doesn’t apply to dissonant technomancers
or to technomancers who have a reputation
for betraying their own.
In effect, a technomancer can safely turn
down a request for aid from any technomancer
who has notoriety.
DUES
Some tribes choose to maintain a private host
or some other facility for members, and these
cost money. Members of the tribe are expected
to make a regular contribution. In place of actual
cash, hacking a secure host for the tribe’s exclusive
use will also fulfill the stricture for as long as
the host is available.
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
110 A MILLION ICONS BLOOM >>

KILL CODE Look, the names these things have sound like they were
given by the stodgiest bland wage-slave. You can guarantee
they are not given names like this in any technomancer
group. We’ve just grouped them together and removed the
funky names so that we can talk about them.
> Netcat
PARAGONS
IN TRIBES
Paragons (see p. 102) sometimes adopt tribes
for their own inscrutable reasons. Presumably
PARAGON TRIBAL BENEFITS
In addition to the personal paragon benefits listed on p.
103, the paragon reduces noise between members of the tribe.
When connecting to, or using a Matrix or Resonance action on
a teammate, the noise penalty for distance is halved, as is the
penalty for being in a spam or static zone.
Adding a paragon is a Resonance action that requires the
entire tribe to be present in one Matrix location and takes an
hour for each member of the tribe.
Removing a paragon requires a majority of the tribe to agree,
and at least half the tribe to be present. The technomancers
present don’t necessarily all need to be the ones who agree to
remove the paragon. The action takes one hour, plus one hour
for each member of the tribe who is not present.
A tribe may not have more than one paragon at a time.
Whether and when a paragon decides to abandon a tribe
is a call for the gamemaster. In general, a tribe should have
several warnings and opportunities to reform before a paragon
severs the relationship. Similarly, convincing a paragon who
has left to return will require some sort of solid proof that the
tribe has changed its ways, “We promise to do better next time”
will never cut it.
the paragon gets something out of the arrangement
by helping tribes that have similar goals. For
whatever the reason, it’s possible to ask a paragon
to help the tribe out. Tribes are also occasionally
approached by paragons for a mutually
beneficial relationship. When you belong to a
tribe that has a paragon as a patron, you gain all
the benefits and drawbacks of having the paragon
as a personal friend. If you already have a
paragon that you have a special relationship with,
it doesn’t keep you out of the tribe, but you only
get the benefits from your friend; you don’t get
the benefit of the tribal paragon.
One additional benefit a paragon gives is that
it is easier for tribemates to communicate with
each other. Perhaps the paragon smooths the
way for the signal between its helpers, or maybe
it gently molds the communication style of the
tribe in such a way that it is easier to sync. Either
way, talking with your tribemates becomes just
that little bit easier.
> Are these like mentor spirits for mages? Because they
sound like mentor spirits for mages.
> Frosty

KILL CODE While they may look similar, mages and shamans call
on ancient archetypes and spirits, established and
traditional mentors, beyond the ken of our knowledge.
As far as I can see, paragons just popped up a couple
of years ago, and sometimes look different to different
people. Not at all alike.
> Winterhawk
> Sure, and where did the mentor spirits come from
originally? Your explanation sounds good, but I ain’t
buying it.
> Haze
One issue that sometimes comes up is that
paragons and tribes often have similar but
non-identical goals, and occasionally the paragon
tries to push the tribe down the path it wants,
rather than the path the technomancers thought
they wanted. Luckily, technomancers don’t often
see the paragon as infallible, so they can take or
leave advice, and this reduces the influence of a
paragon. Of course, technomancer tribes themselves
are fairly mercurial, and may well decide
to follow their paragon and amend the goals of
the group. They are also able to part ways with a
paragon on friendly terms.
To make things more complicated, sometimes
paragons push for actions that the tribe doesn’t
want, but afterward it turns out to be what they
needed. Many tribes get it wrong, but most paragons
and tribes find they have common ground,
even after large and loud arguments.
Parting ways with a paragon involves using the
Resonance bond that the group shares to unpick
the agreement with the paragon. This is not a
complicated task, but it can take a while to separate
the threads that connect the paragon to the
tribe. A majority of the tribe must agree to parting
ways with the paragon, and at least half the tribe
need to be together in a single Matrix location.
Adding a new paragon is also not difficult. This
requires the entire tribe to be in one place and
meet the paragon. The paragon might require that
the tribe entreat or beg for it to join, or it might see
the arrangement as a simple contract, or even just
as a request to hang out. In any case, it will still
take a while for everyone to make introductions.
If the tribe wants to move on from their old paragon,
and have found another to go to, they must
remove their old one before adding the new one.
Paragons can also ditch tribes that they think
are not holding up their end of the agreement.
Normally there will be a long process where the
paragon complains about the actions of the tribe
before it goes.
It’s also possible to establish contact with a paragon
who has broken off an agreement with the tribe,
but you need to do a lot of belly-crawling to get back
into the good books for something like that.
AI IN TRIBES
> This terrifies me.
> Sounder
They aren’t necessarily a natural fit, but some
technomancers offer a hand to AIs, those other
children of the Matrix. Artificial intelligences don’t
get the Resonance benefits of being in a tribe, but
many of them are eager to be a part of a relatively
trustworthy group of people who share time on
the Matrix.
In many ways, AIs complement technomancers
well. AIs can do several things that technomancers
can’t, especially the way they can interact with devices
using their depth. The technomancers bring
the ability to access the Resonance realms and
sprites, things that AIs can barely understand, let
alone attempt.
In any case, depending on how much the AI
and the tribe trust each other, the home host of an
AI can be an ideal place for a tribe to meet. If the
AI isn’t quite that trusting, their ability to manipulate
ownership of devices is still an excellent way
to get a safer and more secure home for the tribe
and can cut down on the Matrix profile of many of
their members.
AIs also often seem to be interested in sprites
as a curiosity, and some even attempt to study
them in order to find out whether an AI is a distant
cousin of a sprite, or whether they are different
constructs entirely. Little progress has been made.
Sprites don’t seem to mind the attention, but most
do not have any interest in studying the other way.
AIs can be very effective advisors as well, but
like anyone (other tribe members included) they
have their own goals, and care must be taken that
the tribe doesn’t become a pawn in some larger
power play that the AI is involved in.
Naive AIs also have a history of abuse, and
some of those doing the abusing have been technomancer
tribes. When someone easily led and
eager to help is in your group, there are many
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
112 A MILLION ICONS BLOOM >>

KILL CODE I’m still terrified.
> Sounder
VIRTUAL TRIBES
AS CONTACTS
Sometimes you might have made a friend of a
technomancer, and he might introduce you to his
friends. Virtual tribes are not very trusting, but if
you help out the whole tribe, you can get a group
of friends you can rely on. Having a whole tribe
as a friend is not as reliable as having one individual
person, since the people you helped out may
not be the ones who pick up the phone. Even so,
it is nice to know a group of incredible hackers. If
you continue to help them out with small tasks—
normally things that cannot be done from the
Matrix—they will be able to help you out in the
Matrix.
Virtual tribes excel at being an information
clearing house—they are better as a group than
any individual hacker is. If you are friends with a
group, they will be happy to share juicy gossip
with you. Specific paydata—such as the building
layout for the Aztec pyramid, or the name of the
lead scientist on the Evo jump-pack project—will
cost you, but you can expect mates-rates. Generally,
they will have already built in their best discount,
so negotiating probably won’t work, and
you might even offend your friends by being hardnosed
on money.
Virtual tribes collect information about their
central cause, but are also good sources of information
about the Matrix generally, about movers
and shakers in the area, about BTLs and skillsofts.
Tribes are also uniquely good at examining very
large amounts of bland information and coming
up with patterns and root causes. So if you ask
them to look at arrest records, public shipping
manifests, and disease statistics, they may come
back and say that two DocWagon crews are smuggling
medical supplies to three particular gangs on
the edge of the Redmond barrens, just from looking
at all the information and picking out patterns.
FAVORS THAT VIRTUAL
TRIBES APPRECIATE
Virtual tribes don’t have access to everything. When looking
to help a tribe out, there are a variety of things that you can do
that would make things easier for them. The small selection
below should be taken as a starting point.
1. Looking up information in a paper-based library
2. Repairing broken drones
3. Social engineering passwords
4. Being the muscle in a show of intimidation
5. Letting someone hide out at your place
6. Looking after the body of someone on a Resonance quest
> I’ve worked for worse. Normal rules apply—don’t trust the
Johnson if it’s more valuable for them to screw you over.
> Bull
> They don’t sound like they would know what they are
doing, which is not good. The bullets I’ve taken are usually
because I’ve worked for green Mr. Johnsons who didn’t
know what they were doing.
> 2XL
> Yeah, they are a mixed bag, but no one is going to be as
on top of it as an experienced corporate Johnson. Unless
you’re working for a mega, Mr. Johnson is going to need
some hand-holding. That applies to these tribes
> Bull
SAMPLE TRIBES
REPLANTING THE TREE
Talk about your secretive groups—the virtual tribe
referred to as “Replanting the Tree” goes to extreme
lengths to stay secret, hidden even from
other technomancers. I don’t know who their
leader is, and I think that they actually meet in
meatspace to advance whatever shadowy goals
they have. The group has been around a long
time, and it doesn’t look like they are taking many
signups. I possess some facts and rumors, and
they clearly are up to something. Other technomancers
have encountered mysterious and hostile
Replanters in the Deep Resonance realms,
apparently looking for something or trying to
build something. Members thought to have been
with the tribe seem focused on Seattle, especially

KILL CODE Wait, they want to “Replant the Tree”? That will not stand.
> Axis Mundi
> There is a big difference between wanting to and being
able to.
> The Smiling Bandit
> What are you old bastards talking about?
> Turbo Bunny
> I’ll send you some archived files.
> The Smiling Bandit
SUMMER_KNIGHTS
It’s a hard world, and some people want to do
their best for the people they know, protecting
them against the horrors beyond their little gate.
Even non-technomancers. Hey, deep in the Resonance
there could be all kinds of crap that people
don’t know about. Also, technomancers, like
shadowrunners, see a lot of drek that doesn’t
make it to the newscasts. A hell of a lot of the
time it’s not profitable for a corporation to protect
people, so sometimes technomancers have
to be the unsung heroes of the wilderness. As
you can imagine, protecting non-technomancers
is not a very common viewpoint, but the Summer_Knights,
led by ALT-Halus, go out and do
just that.
The Summer_Knights are mostly made up of
people who never thought they would become
technomancers, and the group as a whole is more
about ears on the street than deep-diving into the
Resonance. As a result, they tend to make a difference
on a local level. They can pick up when
someone is being attacked in the Matrix and assist,
but they can also coordinate people around
the world to make small gestures that mean a lot
to people. When paperwork gets lost in the bow-
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
114 A MILLION ICONS BLOOM >>

KILL CODE So, they like to do good things, but really little good
things?
> Winterhawk
> Yeah, they are pretty low-key, haven’t heard much about
them, but maybe that’s the way to stay alive? Ooooooor
maaaybe they are subtly building up a large subnet of
favors and influence at all levels of society, so that when
they make their big play, everyone who owes them will
keep it secret. Maybe they have already done it! I need to
check a few things …
> Snopes
TECHNORIGGERS
The Matrix is made up of all kinds of devices. Vehicles
and drones have had riggers since the Matrix
1.0 and will probably have riggers for many
years to come. As we are a part of this milieu of
devices, servers, nodes and drones, some of us
naturally gravitate toward vehicles as well. There
is a lot to be said for abandoning the flesh but still
remaining a part of the physical world. The Virtual
Racers want to support and encourage technomancers
to embrace the physical world in shells
of metal and plastic. The Virtual Racers seem to
have lost one of their influential members lately,
and there are crazy, spontaneous drone races
happening all across the world, which look like
they could be a shaking down of the pecking order.
It’ll settle down soon as someone, or someones,
step up to lead the group, but for now it’s
fun to watch cleaning drones down their mops
and skip along wet soapy corridors. My favorites
SUMMER_KNIGHTS
Estimated Membership: 12
Headquarters: Cleveland, UCAS
Membership Requirements: A stricter-than-normal evaluation
period, during which members of the group will observe
the potential recruit for months to evaluate whether they
suit the group.
Strictures: Attendance, Oath, Defender
Customs: Deed, Secrecy
Resources: Medium
Dues: Medium
Patron: Alt-Halus
Paragon: None
Membership Benefits: The good feeling that you get for
supporting a group that makes a change in the lives of a
tiny number of people.
Dominant Stream: Technoshamans
Roles for Non-Technomancers: None
Contact Benefits: Alerting the group to areas that they can
help in will earn a small reward. Actively helping the group
with tasks will result in loyal friends.
TECHNORIGGERS
Estimated Membership: 40–60
Headquarters: Austin, Texas
Membership Requirements: No formal requirements
Strictures: Deed (Have a great race!)
Customs: Gossip
Resources: Medium
Dues: Medium
Patron: None
Paragon: None
Membership Benefits: A good source for rigging-based
submersion techniques, they also have good contacts for
buying and trading drones.
Dominant Stream: Cyberadepts
Roles for Non-Technomancers: Group is open only to
technomancers. Normal riggers have their own clubs for
this sort of thing, although there are more and more nontechnomancer
fans around. AIs are welcome and can race
the technomancers, but not in ladder races.
Contact Benefits: Buying and selling drone hardware, and
other vehicle-style benefits. Also, if you want to be taken
on the ride of your life, you can ask them to take over your
Ford Americar. Just be sure to have good insurance.

KILL CODE That can’t be it. There are more groups than this around.
> \dev\grrl
> This is a sample to let you know what sort of things are
out there. Groups are forming and dissolving all the
time. Contact me off-board if you’re looking to make
connections.
> Demonseed Elite
FLASH TRIBES
Most of the time you hang out in your hacker
pod, or dive apartment, cruising the Matrix alone
and living by your wits, but sometimes you come
across something that needs doing. Yeah, sometimes
that’s “for the greater good,” but more often
it’s taking down some bastard who needs taking
down, or hacking some corp that is lazy about
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
116 A MILLION ICONS BLOOM >>

KILL CODE You know, I’ve been around one of these things when it’s
all gone sideways. There was digital graffiti everywhere,
avatars suddenly flipped between basic shop-bought
ones and random creations from a costume shop.
No one could do anything, and the rigger who was
with me lost control of all of his drones. We killed the
technomancer who set it off—it was pretty easy to spot
the panicking person with no deck or ware. I think we
did them a favor. Of course, that didn’t stop the ones
who had turned up to party.
> Red Anya
IGNITING A FLASH
There are two aspects to using flash tribes: calling the
technomancers and guiding them. In many ways it’s not unlike
calling a sprite with dozens of heads.
Putting the word out can determine how many
technomancers turn up, and it’s not like you get to turn people
away, so there might be people there that you don’t expect.
To determine how many people join a flash tribe, roll the
number of dice determined by the table below and add up the
total (rather than counting the number of hits).
DETERMINING FLASH TRIBE NUMBERS
CALLER
MODIFIER
Caller has a charisma of 5+ +1D6
Caller has submerged +1D6
Caller is a part of an existing tribe +1D6
Caller gives more than ten minutes
warning
+1D6
Caller gives less than a minute warning –2D6
Caller has participated in a flash tribe in
the past month
+1D6
After the people turn up, the caller has to maintain control
of the tribe. This is Charisma + Leadership (number of dice
rolled). If this roll is successful, the tribe adds teamwork dice
to each Resonance test made by the caller and anyone else
who is designated by the caller.
If the roll fails, the technomancers run amok. This is an
opportunity for roleplaying out a chaotic scenario. However, in
the interest of keeping things simple, this can be modelled by
adding noise equal to the number of technomancers who have
turned up to everyone in the area.

KILL CODE
DIVING
UNDER
POSTED BY: RESPEC, BUT
DEFINITELY NOT WRITTEN BY HER
> Okay, so, I found this on the ‘link of someone who came
after me. Defused a heck of a data bomb to get it. It looks
like some sort of “protect yourself from technomancers”
guide. Thought it might be good to help us understand
how people think we might come at them, so we can
respond appropriately. Also, we can have a few laughs.
> Respec
> Who would write something like this? Someone who has
it in for technomancers?
> Soldat
> Could be someone with an axe to grind, Clockwork?
> Netcat
> Sh’yeah right. If I ever wrote something like this, I’d never
admit it. Or share it with you people.
> Clockwork
HUNTING
TECHNOMANCERS
That title means two things. In one meaning, the
first word is a verb, the second is an object. In
the other, the first word is an adjective describing
what the second word is doing.
In either case, you have the challenge of avoiding
someone who swims in the information currents
of the Matrix like they are born in them.
Because they were. They have a sense for the ever-present
data flow that can help them either find
what they are looking for quickly or disappear in
the ocean of noise.
What this means is that whatever sense of the
term is being used, it’s trouble. If you’re dealing
with technos, you need to know some of their
habits and tendencies so you can close on them
or get away from them, as situations require. Here
are some tips that should help.
NOTICING THAT
YOU’RE BEING HUNTED
It’s funny, this is the third time today that you’ve received
a call from a telemarketer who knows your
name, and how much money you have in your
primary account. For a few weeks, pizza delivery
drones have been delivering your food to the
Humanis Policlub meetings down the block, and
every time you login, you have to reset your icon
to the default, because something keeps moving
your virtual head to where your virtual ass is.
If you see things like this, you may have a problem.
You may have pissed off a hacker. No need to
panic, though, since a typical decker can only get
you when you’re online. Oh, your offline soy-oven
is spitting out garlic-flavored orange juice? Your
’link keeps setting its timezone to Tanzania? Yeah,
you might have annoyed a technomancer. Think
back—what have you done on recent runs? Have
you let your enemies identify you?
If you someday figure out that there’s a technomancer
who has it in for you, you’re going to have
a bunch of problems that you wouldn’t have with
other enemies. One thing that a technomancer
has in common with a decker is that they could be
sitting pretty in Europort while mucking with your
stuff in south Jersey City. You’ve got a couple of
lines of attack. Firstly, if you, yourself, are a decker
or a technomancer, then you can hit them the
same way they hit you. You can hunt them down
in the Matrix, maybe through old-fashioned legwork,
maybe by looking at their meFeed, or whatever
you come up with. Then you can ambush
their icon and smack them till they cry. Of course,
the fact that you’ve made an enemy of them and
haven’t eliminated them already might mean that
they are a better hacker than you, in which case
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
118 DIVING UNDER >>

TRACKING DOWN
AN ENEMY TECHNOMANCER
A technomancer enemy is, naturally. most likely to be
encountered in the Matrix. If you want to prepare your
defense or ready a counterattack, it first helps to know
where your adversary might be. For this, there is the Trace
Icon Matrix action, p. 243, SR5, repeated here for your
convenience.
hunting them down in the Matrix will probably
be like a chihuahua attacking a doberman. Don’t
abandon everything Matrix, though—there are still
good leads that you can track down and information
that you can glean. It’s just that this may not
be the time to go in with virtual guns blazing.
Unless you have an army.
Let’s be honest, you probably can’t afford a
hacker army, but it would be a very effective way
of tracking down and killing an enemy hacker. You
might also consider bringing in a technomancer of
your very own. Ain’t nothing better at destroying
sprites and technomancers than another one, it’s
not like there is a big sisterhood or brotherhood of
these bastards. You’ll probably be able to find and
hire one that is willing to fight another, so spend
some of that cash stockpile, work out which grid
they hang their hat in, and go in with friends—as
many as you can afford.
A better idea than going after them in the Matrix
is to attack their weak, fleshy meat. Technomancers
spend a lot of time in the Matrix, and
while they are not necessarily weaklings, they will
go down in a broken bleeding heap to someone
who keeps themselves in peak physical condition.
It’s often not even that hard to find out where they
live, if you have the right contacts. Anyone who
is skilled enough to come after you probably has
a reputation, and if they have a reputation, you
can use that to track them down. The hard bit is
actually getting to (say) Singapore without them
noticing and either hoofing it or preparing some
sort of nasty surprise for you while you’re in the
air. Remember that this person has it in for you,
so they will probably notice if your name crops up
on an international flight path. They might even
notice if you get a taxi to a nearby bus station.
Best bet is to spend the extra nuyen and buy the
services of a coyote to get you to where you’re
going. You can remain under the radar by being
extra careful. Disguise your face so that cameras
TRACE ICON
(Complex Action)
Marks Required: 2
Test: Computer + Intuition [Data Processing] v. Willpower
+ Sleaze
You find the physical location of a device or persona
in the Matrix. After succeeding with this action, you know
the target’s location for as long as you have at least one
mark on the target. This doesn’t work on hosts because
they generally have no physical location, or IC programs
because they are confined to their hosts.
If you are unable to gain two marks on the target, you
will have to use good old-fashioned legwork. Remember to
use appropriate modifiers to any rolls made; for instance,
the Distinctive Style quality adds +2 dice to tracking down
the person who has it.
have a harder time recognizing you, put a stone
in your shoe to give yourself a limp, travel on your
feet, or buy a bicycle or something, and while you
are going to need a commlink of some sort, get
yourself a new one. Seriously, leave your main
’link at home (or with a friend, so it still looks like
it’s moving about), and buy a cheap model without
a camera when you get there to talk to your
friends back home. Then ask around for someone
who matches the description of your bogey, buy
a few big guns (in case they have drones), turn off
your wifi, and go kick down a door and pop some
grenades.
I hesitate to mention it, but if you don’t want to
go to all that trouble, you could go for a non-violent
solution. If you know who the technomancer
is, you might be able to get a friend to talk to them
and pressure them into backing off. One good
way to do that is by making friends with someone
close to them, or bribing someone close to them,
and then seeing what it would take to back off. To
be fair, if you really have fucked them over, you
might have to try to undo whatever it was that
honked them off. Whether this is worth your time
and money is a decision that you’ll have to make,

KILL CODE >

KILL CODE

KILL CODE >

KILL CODE

KILL CODE
INFINITE
REALMS
POSTED BY: NETCAT
We’ve detailed some parts of the Resonance
realms before, but one of the tricks to a place that
seems to be infinite, or at least as close enough
that it might as well be inside out, is that there are
perpetually new places to explore. I’ll run down
some of the places I’ve encountered or heard
about lately. Dive in!
TOMBSTONES
One of the Resonance realms I’ve been to recently
that I have no real desire to revisit is a place
called Tombstones. It seems like every program
that has run in the past but is no longer supported,
is obsolete, or has been replaced by something
superior has come to rest here. The realm
looks like endless rolling black hills under a starless
black sky, where black and white tombstones
contain the last output that these dead programs
ever produced. The size and ornamentation of
the tombstones seem to be related to how popular
or widespread the program was. Some hills
have hundreds of tiny plaques celebrating “Hello
World” programs, where other hills may have
just one large, forbidding sepulture to a piece of
accounting software that was once used across
the world but has now faded into history. Near
the edges of the realm are graves where the programs
they are attempting to contain are not
quite dead. Error messages and other failures
slowly update on the headstones, slowing down
as the last few machines running these dying programs
stutter and fall silent.
Despite the fact that these programs have displayed
their final output, there is still valuable information
locked away behind obsolete interfaces
and dead terminals. For the technomancer willing
to put in the work, it’s possible to find all kinds of
embarrassing or revealing information with a little
bit of digital necromancy. In the Sixth World,
where creative accounting history is almost a field
unto itself, there are many financial trails that are
digitally massaged so that they look innocent. Often
old records can reveal the beginnings of data
trails that can lead to criminal convictions, loss of
employment, or a large dip in share values. This
realm is a popular spot for technomancers who
are looking for historic data, who are feeling nostalgic,
or who are looking for a particular program
they may have used or coded in their youth.
The sprites who haunt this realm often seem to
take on familiar human shapes. Often they appear
to take their appearance from people who died
in the various Matrix crashes, or who were the
subject of virtual personality experiments. Small
in numbers, a heartbreaking group of sprites appear
to be modeled on technomancers who have
died in corporate experimentation. None of these
sprites seem interested in talking about any former
lives they might have had; they only seem interested
in keeping weeds off the burial sites.
There are a few technomancers who come to
try to find friends or family who have died in Matrix-related
experiments, with some success. The
sprites don’t seem to mind having people come
and watch them, although it can be tragic when
a technomancer prefers sitting and watching the
e-ghost of a dead lover. Sometimes people become
so absorbed watching their loved ones that
they neglect their own body. Perhaps there are
family groups of e-ghosts wandering the black
hills.
That whole thing creeps me out. It puts the consequences
of anti-technomancer bias in my face,
and their mournfulness feels like failure to actually
live. It offers emotions I have no desire to feel.
> As with so much of the realms, the problem here is the
ratio of available data to useful data. For every financial
program buried here, there are like a thousand endless
runner games. And for every set of numbers that reveals
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
124 INFINITE REALMS >>

some past shenanigans, there are ten thousand sets of
numbers that offer no useful information whatsoever. If
you have no tips on where to find something useful, you’ll
start to see how finding a needle in a haystack can feel like
a comparatively easy task.
> Icarus
KERNEL PANIC
It can be pretty mind-bending being a technomancer
sometimes—using your brain to interact
with the Matrix goes against everything that
metahumanity has been trying to do for as long
as we’ve been around. Twisting your brain around
the metaphors and underlying structure of the
Resonance is something we grow into, one piece
at a time. Every time we gain another piece of
insight, we grasp something that can help us understand
things at a deeper level.
That doesn’t seem possible with the realm that
has been called Kernel Panic. My friends and I
have a theory that Kernel Panic is raw, unfiltered
Resonance, unshaped by anything—simple and
honest. In any case, visiting Kernel Panic is a confusing
experience. At first, there doesn’t appear
to be any sculpting for the realm—colors, scents,
and sounds combine in a bright welter of sensory
information. If you can stand to stay for a while, a
kind of order in the randomness emerges. Patterns
shift and reverberate through different timescales.
One moment you can see what looks like a sprite
being assembled or born; another moment there
is a series of discordant rising tones and the strong
smell of vanilla drifting by while part of the fundamental
essence of a complex form drifts past.
At this point, many technomancers drop out of
the experience, overloaded and overwhelmed. I
know that the first time that I visited I needed a
bit of me-time, so I stayed in the meat world for a
while. The funny thing is that the weird sensations
and patterns stuck with me for a while. I couldn’t
stop thinking about them, and when I had worked
through them it felt as if I’d solved a complicated
equation while sifting through my own emotions.
At that point, I noticed that the Resonance seemed
easier to use, flowing with more clarity around me.
Technomancers who are looking for more information
about themselves and the Resonance
may find that Kernel Panic helps them. I’ve heard
of a lot of people who haven’t got anything from
the experience, but then I’ve never heard of anyone
who has gone dissonant because they visited
the realm. It’s a popular destination for technomancers
wanting to submerge.
> I went and had some similar experiences to Netcat the first
time. I loved it, and I decided I would go back regularly,
treating it as a sort of meditative spot. It was great the first
few times, but I noticed the calming effect started steadily
declining. I don’t know if I was building up a resistance
or something, or if I was just getting used to the weird
patterns. I found myself wanting to find a way to get that
initial sensation back, and that feeling tends to make me
nervous. So I went cold turkey.
> Hexatite
> Probably just means you need to work harder to maintain
your focus. Or the realm is working to drag you under its
control. One or the other.
> Puck
THE FACTORY
Each time a technomancer visits the Factory,
they enter a side access door into a huge building.
Looking across the Factory floor, you see
sprites assembling other sprites out of Resonance.
Huge crucibles of molten data swing high
above, dripping and splattering hot raw Resonance
around the feet of anyone in the vicinity.
As you progress through the building, giant robots
are created alongside tiny creatures, and all
of them are transported off into a hazy orange

KILL CODE As far as you know.
> Puck
On the other hand, who knows where sprites
might go when they’ve been made? One thing is
clear about this place—if you are looking for information
about compiling or registering sprites, this
realm has a lot of useful data. It tends to be a bit on
the clinical side, which might well represent how
metahumanity is learning about technomancers,
sprites, and the Resonance.
You can get some information by observing the
construction processes, but more useful is finding
and talking with a floor supervisor. Skilled and resonant
technomancers even get to talk to the Factory
Foreman. The supervisors are a little work-focused,
but they’re usually willing to talk and can
provide interesting insights into just how things
are being assembled. The Foreman always carries
an air of harried work overload, and it can be tough
to pin him down for a conversation of any length.
Flash a little Resonance-shaping skill, though, and
he’ll be more likely to slow his pace and have a few
words. It’s not at all clear who the Foreman reports
to, or if there is even anyone who is higher up the
food chain. In any case, having skilled sprites walk
a technomancer through the processes they use
teaches a lot about how to interact and deal with
those beings.
Sprites are everywhere in this realm, as are
construction hazards and fast-moving delivery vehicles.
Health and safety are treated seriously, but
it’s not like technomancers and sprites are hurt by
the same kinds of things. There is very little malice
here, but accidents do happen. Watch your step.
> A rookie mistake is keeping your eye only on the raw
materials, thinking the danger comes from spilled molten
metal or something, while ignoring the finished sprites.
The sprites here, though, exist in varieties I have never
encountered, and some are feral and quite mean. You
might stroll by a sprite under construction that decides to
take a bite out of you the moment it gets finished. Danger
can come from anywhere.
> Respec
CRUFT: MISC. FLOTSAM
FROM SOCIETIES
Some of the Deep Resonance realms are harder
to describe than others. Where most realms have
a door or some sort of portal to open, in order
to enter Cruft, you must push through a clinging,
sticky matted mass of fibers. Once you make it
through the first bunch, each step you take in the
realm involves wading through deep masses of
cotton-wool material, which clings and sticks.
Pick up these fibers, and you can see all kinds of
memes, viral images, and videos sliding along the
fabric. Repetitive musical earworms gently tinkle
through the air, as if being played somewhere
far distant. The longer you stay in the realm, the
more alone and isolated you feel, but picking up
and watching the pictures and videos can ease
the loneliness for a while. I find it hard to stay focused
here—if I didn’t have shit to do, I could see
myself wasting hours and hours watching various
rodents or geometric repeating patterns. Different
parts of the realm seem to be dedicated to
different types of material, where one section
might be mostly pictures of politicians crossed
with animals, another might play repeating tunes,
and yet another might show variations on the
simsense three-emotion reel.
There are not a lot of reasons to visit this realm
for serious work, but there are a few useful pieces
of information buried in the masses of cute animals.
If you’re looking for something catchy to distract a
group of people, you could do worse than to find
a fitting meme buried in the Cruft. Probably more
useful is the fact that it’s possible to get a gauge
on how groups of people are feeling based on the
material passing through this realm. If you want an
idea of who might be getting a groundswell of support
during an election, or if you need to work out
what might be most damaging to a corporation,
it’s possible to get inspiration here. Some technomancers
also come here to numb the pain of ex-
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
126 INFINITE REALMS >>

KILL CODE As with most of the Resonance realms, the trick here is
that there is a mass of data, and you have to figure out
what it means. Yes, you’ll see pictures and videos, and
you’ll get the sense of what some people are thinking
about—but which people does the thread you’re
looking at represent? There can be clues in the strands
of fabric you’ll encounter, but these clues can be tricky.
Is that tartan plaid you’re holding representative of
some group of Scots, or executives who make Scotch
tape? Does the dragon-scale pattern you see represent
a particular dragon? The Draco Foundation? Saeder-
Krupp? If you want to use the information you find, a
guess is not good enough.
> Netcat
OUT OF BAND
In the cracks between the other Resonance realms
lies the raw networking that links the realms together.
Not so much a realm itself, Out of Band is
a pathway for moving between different realms.
As you squeeze yourself into the realm, you feel
yourself pulled at high speed through tunnels
made of light. Most of the time this will last for a
few tenths of a second before you arrive at your
destination. Technomancers often feel that this
is just the process to get to the other end, but if
you are prepared for it and ready to hold on, it’s
possible to keep yourself in the stream and stick
in the pipe. On the edge of the information flow,
shapes, sounds, and other sensations flow past. If
you reach out, millions of independent fragments
of information flow through and around you, creating
a confusing torrent of raw data.
Out of Band makes a good place to meet other
technomancers, sprites, and other denizens of the
Resonance, and technomancers who spend any
reasonable amount of time in this realm generally
find it easier to connect to the Resonance. It’s certainly
easier to communicate with paragons here.
Unlike many other Resonance realms, Out of
Band doesn’t store information—it’s a conduit, not
a repository, but some information from meatspace
seems to travel through Out of Band to get
to the other realms. I haven’t heard of anyone who

KILL CODE Ready to go down a rabbit hole? The theory is that the
Resonance realms records every bit of Matrix data, ever.
And what happens in the Resonance realms counts. That
includes Out of Band. So if someone changed a document
while here, the original document and the changed
document would be saved somewhere. So you could find
both. Good luck with that—and determining which is the
original and which is changed.
> Hexatite
HUMAN MALICE
(DISSONANT REALM)
Where many technomancers visit Resonance
realms in order to learn more about what goes
on there, or to create strange and unusual code,
there are other realms that do not have those
kinds of positive effects. These other realms
swirl, not with chaos (well, not just with chaos),
but with malevolent and dire information that
can harm any data and personas that tread unwisely.
Sensible technomancers don’t visit these
places, but if you are very quick and careful, you
might survive long enough to get out, and maybe
cut the cord for a while to recover. Many people
who visit these realms descend into madness
and Dissonance, so these places are called Dissonant
realms. We’re still not sure if the Resonance
is one big ball of information with Resonant and
Dissonant parts, or whether those two sources
are related but ultimately separate. Or if they are
something entirely else.
One realm that a friend has reported on doesn’t
really have a name, but I’ve taken to calling it the
realm of Human Malice. If the Endless Archive is
where every bit of information is stored carefully
for the future, Human Malice is a hot, sweaty
shack of revenge porn, doxxing information, online
blackmail material and so on. Human Malice
probably repeats some of the same information
that the Endless Archive has, but where the Endless
Archive has secrets carefully nested away under
glass, Human Malice has insults, angry texts,
heated invective, and video footage that people
wished did not exist. Information on explosives
and chemicals plaster the walls. The denizens of
this realm look like twisted caricatures of humans.
Distorted, sweaty sprites dressed almost exclusively
in deteriorating rubber and split leather. No
two of them are alike. It’s hard to know what the
beings of this realm do, as no sane individual has
stayed long enough to find out, but it’s unlikely to
be good. There may be a paragon nestled deep in
Human Malice, but I wouldn’t want to see it.
REVERSING
THE CURRENT
POSTED BY: PUCK
Let me tell you a story.
Once there was a young man who lived in a
kingdom that was broken. There were dozens
of mud huts surrounding a grand castle, and of
course the mud dwellers were never allowed into
the castle. Scents of wonderful food sometimes
drifted out of the castle’s window, and occasionally
a carriage with plush velvet seats, pulled by
horses as tall as two men, moved to and from the
castle. The mud dwellers had a hint of the grandeur
that was close by, but it was something they
could never touch.
The man, understandably, became bitter at
this whole situation, and he decided to storm the
castle and get some of the riches it held. First, he
vowed to climb the wall, but he was met at the top
by guards who rudely threw him to the ground.
Then, he decided to tunnel under, only to find the
foundation went deeper into the ground than he
can imagine. Then, he decided to rob one of the
carriages. And he actually succeeded, stealing
away a small bag of coins and enough food for a
full meal, which he shared with his family. It was
the best meal they had ever eaten.
The next day, guards from the castle emerged,
found the man and his family, and killed the entire
family. The man, they left alive.
After that, his only goal was to burn the castle
down.
Is that man me? It has been, sometimes. Not all
the time. I’ll bet it’s been a lot of you, too. I mean,
isn’t that what we’re doing here? Seeing how
much damage we can inflict on the fortress the
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
128 INFINITE REALMS >>

KILL CODE I’d be somewhat creeped out by this and objecting to
Puck’s presence on this board if I didn’t have a part of me
that totally understood what he is saying.
> Mihoshi Oni
And so we have Dissonant technomancers. In
some ways, they’re like toxic shamans, who have
given themselves over to the forces that would
tear apart the world and have thrown their souls
into channeling dark destruction. In other ways,
they’re not like anything, because we do not have
the words for all the things they do. Or to describe
the tools they use.
We know they channel Dissonance, but what
does that mean? We’re still figuring out what
Resonance is, and Dissonance is even less clear.
Is it the anti-matter to Resonance’s matter? Is it
a somewhat different wavelength of Resonance,
where sometimes it can amplify Resonance,
sometimes it can flatten it in destructive interference,
depending on how and where it hits? Is it
another force entirely that just happens to be able
to interact with Resonance? I don’t know. I don’t
even know what the Resonance is. I just learned
how to use it.
And some people are learning how to use Dissonance.
I don’t believe I can talk about Dissonance
streams the same way I can about Resonance
streams. The Resonance is wild, but it also has …
well, “flavors” doesn’t seem like quite the right
word, but it’s also not entirely wrong. The streams
are discernible.
Maybe the streams in the Dissonance are discernible,
too. I’m not willing to stare at them long
enough to find out. What I have seen, though, is
how people use the Dissonance. I’ve seen what
they do, and to me and a number of other TMs I’ve
talked to, there seem to be certain patterns. These
aren’t tribes or anything—these are just ways of
describing tendencies we’ve seen out there and
putting people into groups based on this behavior.
MORPHINAE
This name came from an insect-loving friend of
mine. She named these people after a lovely group
of butterflies that are usually dark blue, black, and
purple in color. Some of them flit from flower to
flower; others fly higher than tree tops. She liked
this name because it fits some technomancers
who treat Dissonance like a toy, something to bat
around and see where it goes. They have not fully
submerged themselves in the Dissonance, but
they don’t have their feet planted on the ground.
It’s not clear where, or if, they will land.
The biggest danger with the Morphinae is they
are experimenting with something neither they,
nor anyone else, fully understands. When they try
to weave a complex form or summon a sprite out
of Dissonance, they are not sure what will happen.
And if they did something once that got a good,
controllable reaction from the Dissonance—or at
least something that they could dismiss before it
turned on them—they make sure to never do that
again. Control isn’t interesting to them. They always
seek something different, something new,
and, if things go their way, something disruptive.
It’s the online nightclub where the dance floor
starts undulating, then slowly slides up the wall,
taking you with it. It’s the concert that turns into a
dream—you’re in your underwear, you’re talking to
people you can’t remember encountering, you’re
here then you’re there without knowing how you
got from one point to another. But it’s only odd if
you stop and think about it. It’s the distant howl of
an animal you never see, but you smell its musk.
The noise continues for so long that you wonder
how the creature ever breathes, but then you remember
that of course it doesn’t have to. Its howl
ebbs and flows, it rises so it pierces into your skull
and bounces around, hitting a note that feels like
it might melt your eyeballs. You try to shake it. But
it won’t go away.
I don’t know if you’ll ever experience those
things, or things like those things. I don’t know
what the Morphinae will unleash if you come near
them. I just know that you won’t predict it.
> These people are not the most powerful enemy you’ll
ever encounter, but they rank among the most annoying,
simply because they’re entirely unpredictable and
impossible to reason with or anticipate. Any of the normal
motives that might apply to someone—money, sex, selfpreservation,
even basic curiosity—may or may not apply
to them. They don’t employ tactics, you don’t have what
they want, and you have no idea what they’ll unleash at
you. Seriously, annoying as hell.
> Pistons

KILL CODE Wait, “sapient consciousness”? Is Puck saying this sort of
thinking occurs in AIs?
> Sounder
> It does. Perhaps not as universally as it does among
metahumans, but sapience comes with a certain need for
intuitive creativity, and intuitive creativity comes with the
chance of making connections that do not, in fact, exist.
> Icarus
Apophenians channel the Dissonance to make
connections between points and elements on the
Matrix that did not exist before their involvement.
There is a decent possibility that these connections
shouldn’t exist. But for better or worse, the
Apophenians make them happen.
This can be many things to people in our line
of work—a blessing, a curse, a nuisance, or something
else. For example, say you’re looking to get
some paydata from a walled-off private host, and
you find out some Apophenian had built a direct
connection from, like, Dante’s Inferno. If that connection
occurs before you break in—great, you just
found an easy way to get somewhere that would
otherwise take significant time and effort. But if
they make the connection after you break in, your
secretive operation is now interrupted by club goers
looking for a secluded spot. You don’t want
that to happen.
> One of their more casual hobbies is to create infinite
loops, where two locations are changed to refer only
to each other, leaving anyone logged on there stuck.
Yeah, you can log off, but sometimes they’ll try to close
down those channels so you have to risk dumpshock.
They’re charming.
> Pistons
That’s one of the more direct examples of their
work. Many people are concerned that they are
building other connections that are hidden and
will not reveal themselves until the Apophenians
have done enough to foment a catastrophe. Will
they make a Crash 3.0-scale event? Unlikely. There
is too much redundancy in the Matrix, too much
monitoring by GOD for that to happen from a
small group of actors planting slow-moving seeds.
Will they cause bad craziness to erupt inside some
hosts? You bet your ass.
> One likely intended effect: Dissonance pools in
unexpected places.
> Netcat
> And since this is Dissonance we’re talking about here,
don’t be quick to dismiss them with a thought like, “well,
at least they couldn’t connect X to Y, because Matrix
structures blah blah blah.” Dealing in Dissonance opens
up possibilities most of us would rather not contemplate.
> Hexatite
ERISIANS
This third “group” has been named after the Greek
goddess of strife and discord, because honestly
that’s as descriptive a name as you could get. They
are the nihilists of the Matrix, prepared to burn
the existing structure down and see what emerges
from its wreckage. They are united in their worship
of something none of them understand. That
seems to be part of the worship—channeling Dissonance,
letting it bloom (hmm, seems like the wrong
word. Maybe “fester”?), seeing what it makes, what
it destroys, and what it becomes. They stare at it,
enraptured, the way an arsonist watches flames.
They believe in Dissonance, but that belief can not
be translated into any kind of identifiable system of
values. Do they believe the Dissonance will build
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
130 INFINITE REALMS >>

KILL CODE You sound oddly condemnatory, given your past. I would
think you’d be able to find some sympathy.
> Nephrine
> I figured that argument would come up. I know I made
mistakes (though my assessment of what those are may
not be in sync with what others think), but one thing
I have never lacked is a sense of purpose. I have had
an idea of what I want to happen, even when I have
chosen the wrong means. The Erisians don’t have that
understanding, at least not as far as they have been able
to communicate to me.
> Puck
Some of you still might be inclined to seek Erisians
out, for whatever reason. Since my encounters
with them have been limited, I sought out others
who had met them so they could share their
impressions of what it was like to meet them. Here
is a selection of their responses, with no identifying
information because I have no desire to cause
trouble for any of these people:
I was in the Louvre host, just taking in some
paintings, when the paint started liquifying, dripping
down the canvas and off the frames. I turned
and saw some people panicking, while others were
frozen in place. Then they started to melt, too. I
didn’t know if they had been there the whole time.
I hadn’t been looking at them. I couldn’t say which
of the people around me were real. Then the walls
started melting, revealing what was behind them.
What was behind them were spirals, twisting and
turning, pulling people in. They made a noise like a
metal saw. It felt like my teeth were disintegrating,
even though my sim modules are nowhere near
that sensitive. One of the spirals reached for me,
and the whining became louder, and the disintegration
moved into my skull, and I felt my head
falling apart.
When I woke up, I was offline. Ten hours had
passed. I gotta get some neurological tests done.
Files move here, files move there, just a normal
day keeping the data and numbers flowing.
On days like that—which is every day—anything
different is welcome, so when I saw the first
firework go off, I smiled. Then there were a few
more, in red and orange and yellow. They were
bright but soundless. Then more came, and they
were bigger, and then each one—how can I say
this?—shot out its own kind of reality. You could
see each ember expand, and you could see a window
into some other place in their growing circle.
Some showed crowded cities, others vast deserts,
others twisted alien landscapes. When people
were hit by them, they disappeared. I didn’t know
what happened to them. But then I got hit by one.
Suddenly, I was standing on a cliff near a sunny
beach. There were a few people strolling around,
dipping their toes in the water, enjoying themselves.
I had no idea where I was, but it turned
out to be a pretty normal Horizon grid. I logged
off and went on with my life. Our company grid
was down for two entire days, and when it came
back and I returned to work, three of my coworkers
were gone. No one has said what happened
to them.

KILL CODE Puck seems to be a little obtuse on this one. Don’t we know
one of the main purposes of people like the Erisians—to
spread Dissonance?
> Cosmo
> One on level, maybe. On another level, maybe not.
Part of the problem is that we know so little about
what Dissonance is. Does it get stronger as it is more
concentrated? Or is it best when it is spread out, so it
can touch as much non-Dissonance as possible? Does
Dissonance want to dominate the world, or just corrupt
enough of it so that it acts as a spiced contrast to the
order of the rest of the world. Or does neither the
Dissonance nor its followers know anything about what
they want, but they act out of some instinct or intuition
whose roots are foreign to our ways of thinking? These
questions helped prevent Puck from speaking with any
certainty.
> Pistons
GAME
INFORMATION
NEW TECHNOMANCER
QUALITIES: DISSONANT
STREAMS
What is the nature of data? To a resonant technomancer,
data flows in specific patterns, and like
electricity it seeks the path of least resistance.
There is order in the world, and data seeks to
obey. Dissonant technomancers deal with another
flow, whose nature and rules are not clear, but
it has a destructive, chaotic effect on Resonance.
Dissonant technomancers do not seek to control
this force so much as unleash it. The rules and science
behind Dissonance are not really interesting
to them. They treasure the experience, and they
place that above things such as efficiency, logic,
or morality. Is there any wonder that the allure of
Dissonance is so strong?
These streams follow the same rules as Resonant
streams (p. 89), in that a stream costs 20 Karma
to purchase and does not double its cost after
character creation. A character cannot follow two
streams simultaneously.
MORPHINAE
Like the butterflies from which they take their
name, Morphinae flit to whatever catches their
attention, and the direction of their gaze is not always
clear. They are Matrix mad scientists, trying
new things to see what happens without any regard
for the consequences. Dissonance is a brave
new world to the Morphinae, and because they
have detached themselves from their mental
blocks to accept their new reality, they are wild
and unpredictable.
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
132 INFINITE REALMS >>

KILL CODE

KILL CODE >

KILL CODE

KILL CODE
NULL
SIGNS
POSTED BY: DOUBLE A
> Well, that was interesting. For anyone who missed it,
the file I uploaded disappeared only 8.3 seconds after
I completed the upload. I tried again, and it made it
7.4 seconds before it disappeared from the system.
Not just deleted—all records of the attempt gone. For
anyone who managed a copy (and kept it) or is a real
speed-reader, feel free to use the Null Sect post for
commentary. I encrypted the title phrase, hoping that
will keep Them at bay! I recommend avoiding names and
specifics, since whoever They are, They have remarkable
search software. Maybe we can have a conversation
before They erase the data. I’m also going to send out a
physical copy (I know, ewww) to a few people and keep
tossing uploaded scans every few days, as long as it
doesn’t get dangerous. If you’ve already got a copy, pass
it on. They’ve focused on deleting the files up until now,
as long as that’s where they put their focus, we’ll keep
trying to free the information.
As for the scan, well, it’s complicated. I got this sent
to me from a courier I trust, and he said the guy on
the other end was a frazzled mess who looked like he
hadn’t slept in weeks. I read it, vetted a few things, and
then tossed it up. And we saw what happened. Nothing
like having a file deleted by some mysterious force to
let you know you’re onto something. For all those who
have a copy, I’m sorry about the state of his mind, his
English, and his typing skills. It looks like he used some
kind of offline typing system that doesn’t bother to
correct typos and he wasn’t in any state of mind to go
back and edit. So, with no further ado, I’ll toss it up one
more time for dreks and funnies. Let’s see if they can
get it in under five. This’ll all go up in a burst, then you
can comment after.
> Glitch
> From the opening snippet I managed, this looks like what
I was talking about. This guy got more, and probably
lost more, but this has to be the same strangeness I was
talking about in the Dark Terrors drop.
> Puck
> Pick up your postal order and you can read it all—he left
me a side note that he sent you a copy.
> Glitch
> I’m a few thousand miles from that registered address.
When I get back in the area, I’ll pick it up. Until then I’ll limit
my nightmares to what I already know, and avoid adding
any more looking over my shoulder.
> Puck
THE NULL SECT
My name is Allan Ames. My street name is Double
A. I worked primarily in the St. Louis sprawl
until 2076; since then, I’ve been all over the world.
I’m a decker, though I also possess a small connection
to the Resonance. It stays small because
of the interference created by my augmentations.
Tetris took me in and tried to make me better, but
I never managed to manipulate much. He’s dead
now. The first casualty who pointed me down this
path. I’m at the end now. Not much more I can
do. I’ve interfered too many times. They didn’t
care that much at first. But once They feel you are
a threat, it’s a downhill path, usually starting with
the erasure of your identity. Let me finish this intro
bit. I worked with the Arch Villains for awhile
until I became a liability. They’re a good crew despite
the asinine name.
As for this document, what I’m doing here is
an attempt to work around Their normal protocols,
outside Their sphere of influence. I apologize
in advance for any errors. I’m a skilled typist,
but it’s been a long time since I clicked away
on something so archaic as this typing machine.
I think it’s actually called a typewriter, but I’m not
sure. I’ll type this, make some copies, send them
where I think they’ll do the most good, and keep
going, but I think this may be the straw that breaks
the dot-camel’s back. I tell you all these things in
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
136 NULL SIGNS >>

case you may need to seek me out or may need to
continue my investigation and wish to look for my
original work. It’s there. Just dig.
For others who have traveled a similar path, or
those who I have talked to and discussed this topic
and whom this concerns, or even those within
this Matrix pit who are willing to listen to reason,
I write this to tell you something has changed. For
years this issue only concerned us technomancers
and the AIs out there. They left the regular users
alone, They left them to their standard user agreements
and didn’t worry about device users, but
technomancers, and even a few AIs, have friends.
Friends who are willing to help, despite it not being
their problem or their fight. But 2079 has seen
changes to Their behavior. Too many regular users
are interfering with Them. Too many rumors are
spreading about Them. Now, They seem to have
widened their scope of desires. They no longer
just threaten the technomancers, AIs, and Monads
(really just meatsuit AIs). They’ve expanded Their
efforts. Maybe this was always the plan. Maybe we
pushed too hard like we always do. Neither matters.
Now, we just need to know what’s out there,
and that’s where these pieces of paper are going
to come in handy.
Pulling the curtain back feels good, even if I am
exposing myself to a metaphorical firing squad.
Read on.
Fight on.
Hack the Planet.
Defend our virtual realm.
WHAT DO
WE CALL THEM
I call them the Null Sect, thanks to Puck’s little
blurb elsewhere on JackPoint, and because nothing
is available on them. They don’t have a formal
name for themselves, just an agenda. This is
one of the first things that astonishes me about
them. They have no name, yet they can find data
on themselves and their efforts with very little
difficulty. While we use keywords and phrases
to guide our searches, they use something else
that detects patterns and conversations at a rate
beyond even the fastest search programs on the
highest-end systems out there. If the name Null
Sect is sticking, it will just make it even easier for
them to find data on them, but I don’t know any
other way to communicate. We name things. It’s
what we do. They don’t, it’s an easy early divide
to identify our ways of thinking. Point is, that’s
the name, but don’t expect naming to help this.
Probably just makes it worse, but I need a reference
point for myself. From here on, assume that
“They, Them, Their” all refer to the Null Sect with
those intentional capitalizations. And feel free to
cut off this piece of the page if it helps keep this
posted for more than a few minutes.
WHAT DO THEY WANT
A world free of us. And by us, I mean everyone.
But, not like we all need to die, but like we all need
to leave their world and stay out for good. This is
where understanding some fundamental differences
might be necessary. They exist in only one
place—the Matrix. From the Foundation to the
smallest host and across every Grid, they consider
the Matrix to be theirs, and they want us out of
it. It’s more than just wanting us to not be in the
Matrix, they want what I refer to as a “meat free
matrix.” This is a Matrix without personas, without
technomancers, without deckers, without people
on commlinks, without emerged technocritters,
without any connection to the physical world.
They even want a Matrix not reliant on the power
provided by physical sources. Not steam, not
sunlight, not tides, not geothermal energy. They
want nothing from the physical world. They want
people to no longer project their consciousnesses

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KILL CODE I’ll put this right here at the top. Yes, I noticed there are
several places where Double A didn’t capitalize as he
intended, but we are all relatively intelligent and can
read context clues, so stop spamming this log with
corrections. The man typed this up on a damn typewriter.
Dig one of those out of the trash heap, slam out a doc
this large without any errors and you can then come here
and comment. Thank you all for your understanding. And
honestly, if I had my way, I’d go back and get rid of every
capital, because it’s an easy search parameter to utilize.
> Glitch
> I’ve heard a lot of rumors from Matrix sleuths about
their access accounts getting erased. One day they have
access, the next, their account is erased and their getting
an error message every time they try to log on. Given the
work they do, and efforts they make to “free the data,” it’s
very well possible they are being targeted by this group.
> Slamm-0!
> A technomancer I know—well, they used to be a
technomancer—woke up in a recovery ward at a street
doc with a body full of cyber. Most of the systems were
secondhand and the doc mainly served as a chop shop
for the local Yaks, but someone dropped off my buddy,
transferred the doc a sizable sum, and ordered a full
cybersuite installed. Needless to say, the techno lost
his connection to the Resonance. He flipped his drek
and started digging (that’s how I got involved) and we
managed nada, zip, zero, null progress. Could have been
something else, but it seems an interesting way to get a
technomancer off the Matrix.
> Butch
> Why not just hire a hitman? A bullet to the brain deals
with technomancers, too. The effort and funds to snatch,
deliver, and then get a doc to install all that drek. Too much
work for the reward.
> Clockwork
> Let’s look at this for arguments sake. The nuyen is nothing.
Nuyen is code. They control code. He said many times that
they don’t think like we do. They don’t think of life and
death in the same way. They think on and off the Matrix
as life and death. Maybe, they have experienced enough
e-ghosts, or the like, to think killing a technomancer just
risks creating an e-ghost. Better to simply cut off their
access.
> Glitch
> The Matrix without power? That sounds like a
technomancer fantasy flick I caught last year. Post
apocalyptic drivel that had technos ruling a world after
it was sent back to the dark ages by an asteroid impact
or something. Then along came a techno with different
thinking and changed everyone’s mind, overthrew the
powers, and the world went on happily ever after. The
problem was, they never explained how a Matrix existed
without devices.
> /dev/grrl
> Maybe the technos were the devices in the trid. Doesn’t
match up with what he says they’re doing to technos here,
since they’d be corralling them to run their Matrix on, but
then again, that’s not meatless—that’s meat based.
> Slamm-0!
> Those Red Spread things sound more like a bunch of
individuals all working together rather than a single entity.
Especially if they can do all that drek at once. Based on
what he says, I don’t think any of these things are limited
by the normal rules we’ve put on the Matrix about size
and function. It sounds like they take whatever shape they
fragging feel like.
> Bull

KILL CODE I think I’ve seen a Clear-Out. That outline they form looks
like it’s made of old magnetic tape, like the stuff in old reelto-reels
or cassettes. I’m not entirely sure, could have just
been a really tweaked persona. When I got a good look,
they were hanging out in a Lone Star host and could have
jacked out to disappear so fast, but I could have sworn I
saw something move away. Most people I tell this story to
have told me I’m nuts, but now it makes sense.
> Turbo Bunny
> Reports about something like the Nulls pop up often
on the local forums and chat spots. I can’t find a single
one up right now, but I know I’ve seen them before. I
was positive about one over on the WizTechTime site,
but now it says it was taken down by the moderator for
content. I know for a fact the mod didn’t take anything
down, because I’m the moderator.
> Slamm-0!
> That makes sense. WizTechTime is garbage!
> Glitch
> I’ll fess up to my utter hatred of technos, but I’m not some
secret tool of a Matrix cult. I don’t care if you fragsacks
believe me, but I’m saying straight up, I am not a part of
this (deleted by sysop). If I happen to have taken a job to
rid the world of a fraggin’ techno and it was contracted by
them, oh well. I do that all the time. As for anything Double
A may have tried to send me. I’ll never get it because I
never stick around anyplace long enough for Matrix
trackers to nail me down, so some snail mail letter has
an ice cube’s chance in hell of catching up to me. Maybe
I’ll look into jobs I take, maybe I won’t, but anything that
helps me rid the world of you freaks, I’ll be sure to offer
special low-rates for my services.
> Clockwork
> I deleted dozens of lines insulting Clockwork. Stop wasting
my memory stores. Keep it on point here. I also snipped
the name of “Them”, as Double A puts it. Don’t drop it in
here or we’re likely to lose this forum along with the data
when it pops up.
> Glitch
> I’ve heard of Tam before. He’s like the bogeyman for
technomancers. Far worse than even Clockwork. That
headware treatment his doc performs has been the death
sentence for dozens of TMs that would rather end their lives
than live without the Matrix. The upside is that most don’t set
off their cortex bombs and they get found during the autopsy.
Though that is also the bad news because post-mort docs all
over have been injured when they went to check the cranial
cavity. Tam, or at least his MO, is connected to investigations
in most corps and nations all over the world.
> Stone
> Nice thing about corporate police running cities is the
connectivity between systems. If we could get the big
boys (KE, Lone Star, Minuteman, etc.) to play nice together
it would be even better, but that’s a pipe dream.
> Killjoy
> That would be a nightmare, not a pipe dream. They’d
have most runners pinned in a few days. The only thing
keeping them off us would be their corporate masters
who would then just blackmail us into working for them.
Don’t lose that positive attitude, kid, but maybe leave
some naïveté behind.
> Bull
> Drek! Seagull! I heard nothing but positive things. She’s
got a solid rep and a great list of contacts. Though, I guess
one of those is a piece of drek, but everything I’ve heard of
her has been solid chill.
> KC
> The Hitsec protocol was vicious. It buried targets in IC,
launching program after program in a cascade of death. It
focused heavily on every derivation of black IC available,
operating on the concept that a brain-fried target has no
chance of becoming a repeat offender against the system.
> Netcat
> Transys-Neuronet is rocketing up in several areas now that
Celedyr isn’t flooding money into his pet project. With the
fate of Eliohann within Boston still unknown, the efforts
to wake him from his coma have been at least somewhat
successful, Celedyr’s funding is moving to more lucrative
projects and getting T-N back on the big-money track it was
on before Celedyr became obsessed with fixing his kin.
> Traveler Jones
> I walked from a job in London involving a deep hack into
T-N systems. The job was supposed to be a data insert with
some other edits, but I didn’t think the cash was enough
for that kind of trouble. Celedyr and company have solid
e-security backed up by those Knights of Rage nutbags.
Could have been O’Ryan trying to get her background
changed so she could move over.
> Respec
> Celedyr’s still paying some attention to business in the
newly reopened NEMAQZ. The wyrm has been putting
cash into intel ops and runs in the area trying to get an idea
of what happened to Eliohann. If it weren’t for the fact that
the folks up near Salem, where he supposedly resides,
are complete wackjobs, he may have figured something
out by now, but they take their privacy seriously. Which
means they’re probably hiding something.
> Ire
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
154 NULL SIGNS >>

KILL CODE Either a crazy dragon or a dead dragon. Neither one is
going to get them the kind of attention they want.
> Slamm-0!
> Or a perfectly sane dragon who now has a very quiet
place to live and a very dedicated group of followers to
worship him. Eliohann was never about ruling the world.
> Ire
> The Lost Children have expanded to the Seattle and PWV
Metroplexes. The Seattle cell had a serious recruitment
push not too long ago and may be larger than the normal
four-person size, or they have more than one cell. The
ones in PWV seem focused on disrupting Evo’s efforts in
the city, including their relationship with other Monads
who stayed back.
> Plan 10
> I know the decker who set up the host for Hoodville.
Goes by the handle of 3D, and he’s been buddying up
with hackers with serious assault talent over the past few
months. He may be looking to put together a force to try
to clear out his host. I don’t know if that is even possible,
but he’s the type to share the info on whether or not it
works after the fact. Though if he doesn’t say anything, it
probably failed and he’s a dead troll.
> Slamm-0!
> 3D has also been looking for talent willing to go offworld
as well. Seems he has an interest in Gagarin. He’s
not alone in this. Several corps have started looking
for shadowrunners willing to be spacerunners in order
to gain access to any intel the Monads may have left
behind. Evo has the jump, since they still had an in, but
they lost tons of personnel, leaving the place ripe for the
picking.
> Fianchetto
> Z-O, and therefore the Corporate Court, has a solution.
Great. Yet another thing they can lord over us to keep us
down.
> Balladeer
> The Blazing Parrot is well known in that region as the
spot to collect bounties on technocritters. Not sure if that
means collusion with these things, but it’s definitely a
similar area of interest.
> Picador
> PWV transit hub? Is that the one that was rumored to have
been run by an AI? That’s why they got so efficient, so fast.
Now, the question to ask is if that AI is still there, or if it got
decoded when the host was seeded.
> Traveler Jones
> Anyone else find it strange that he named places this was
sent? If THEY get ahold of a copy, which they obviously
have because it’s getting deleted from here, then they
know where else to look.
> Ecotope
> I read it as something for us. Something to let us know
there are others out there who share this burden. We
know that if we lose our copy, there are others who have
it as a backup.
> Netcat
> Or it’s a list of targets for someone to hit and clear out
every hardcopy he’s sent.
> Thorn
> There are more copies out there than he has mentioned. I
already made sure of that.
> Glitch
> Way to paint the target.
> Hard Exit
> “Do not live in fear of the darkness. Shine a light on it and
you will see there is nothing to fear.” —FastJack
> Glitch
> Drek! That’s what they’re doing. Chummers have been
getting brainfried left and right on Aegis gigs. Fair warning
for anyone jumping on that money train, it’s no walk in the
park.
> Bull
> Not well hidden, but I don’t mind. If you need Monad
assistance, I’m the Plan you talk to.
> Plan 10
> Feel free to also talk to me, and I’ll leave a message for my
other half.
> Plan 9
> That’s not really how that works, right?
> Respec
> That claim at the end? “De la Mar was right”? The line
that makes me look at this whole thing and think it’s
all bogeyman hooey. Danielle de la Mar is a monster.
She is the monster, when it comes to the Matrix. Her
changes add more shackles, and since the last set she
helped impose were obviously not tight enough, now
she wants to lock us down even further. Double A, thanks
for the effort, but that one paragraph makes me discount
everything you typed.
> Slamm-0!

KILL CODE
INTO THE WILD
POSTED BY: PISTONS
You can always find a reason to go into the known
areas of the Matrix. I don’t need to explain that to
you, right? We all live online all the time, whether
in AR or VR, so we know what’s out there, what
we can do with it, and who will pay us to mess
around in particular areas. But more and more,
we’re learning about all the unknown ares of the
Matrix—the wild, the wooly, and the undefined.
At least, not defined by us. And if you’re like me,
the mere existence of this unexplored territory is
a nigh-irresistable siren’s call.
> Allow me to gently point out that many of these areas
are only “unexplored” if you view them the same way
that European explorers saw the Americas—that is,
with complete disregard for the inhabitants who were
already there.
> Icarus
> Point taken. I should have more clearly expressed that I
meant “unknown to carbon-based beings.”
> Pistons
The trouble with exploring these areas is that it
can be both dangerous and time-consuming. Danger
we can deal with—it’s part of our daily lives, so
all we need is the right information and a little luck.
I’ll try to cover the information part of the equation.
The luck will be up to you.
Time is only an issue if someone isn’t paying for
it. That’s the trick, though—sure, you can find people
who will pay you to go find some juicy paydata,
but who is going to pay you to hack through
jungles of unruly code?
Because I care, I have some answers for you. I’ll
share some sources of money you might be able
to tap if you want to venture into the wild.
> … while saving some of the more lucrative sources for
yourself.
> Netcat
> Of course. What am I, an idiot?
> Pistons
But first, let’s look at the risks.
UNRULY
AND FUNKY
This whole idea of exploring the unknown parts
of the Matrix sometimes feels counter-intuitive,
because many of us are used to thinking of the
Matrix as an entirely constructed entity. It only
exists because we built it, this thinking goes. So
how wild can it be, really?
Much of the Matrix is constructed, it’s true, but
we’re coming to a realization of just how many
beings have constructed it. AIs and protosapients
have greatly altered existing and abandoned portions
of the Matrix, and they also have built entirely
new sections on their own. So these sections
can get quite wild indeed.
Then we have the foundations. Everyone who
understands foundations, raise your right hand.
Now everyone look at your right hand, and know
that if yours is in the air, you have a severe honesty
problem and might possibly be attempting to
deceive yourself, which is never healthy. Change
your ways immediately. Starting with lowering
your hand.
The rest of us know that the foundations are
completely unruly, and while for the most part
hosts are deliberately sculpted out of these foundations,
there are nodules that grow out of them
and sometimes become their own wild hosts.
Yeah. They’re completely funky. And really hard to
find. But so fascinating when you do.
> How often is the nature of these wild hosts determined
by the nature of the foundation? That is, can you see a
connection between various hosts that grow out of a
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
156 INTO THE WILD >>

single foundation, so that you can tell that there is some
consistent element contributed by that foundation?
> Beaker
> Short answer: not really. Longer answer: The data sets
are usually too small for valid comparisons. Wild hosts
are rare, and multiple wild hosts growing out of a single
foundation are rarer still, so trying to make comparisons
between multiple wild hosts to see if they share a
common element is difficult. You could compare them to
constructed hosts, but since those hosts are deliberately
planned, it’s exceedingly difficult to tell if there is any part
of a host that was shaped by its foundations rather than
its designers. So we really have nowhere near enough
information to answer the original question in anything
approaching definitive fashion.
> Netcat
Here are some specific things to consider should
you decide to venture into these particular wilds.
GOD (USUALLY)
ISN’T WATCHING
That title alone might be enough to tempt some
of you to go visit the untamed parts of the Matrix.
Being able to hack without being under the
ever-watchful and punitive eye of GOD is a treasured
dream to some of us, and the freedom this
promises can seem like a version of paradise.
And let me be clear—there are times when it truly
is awesome. You can mess around with code
in a pure, unfiltered way that is completely untethered
by worry. You don’t have to worry about
Matrix standards, or GOD’s sometimes arbitrary
delineation of what is legal and what is illegal.
Sometimes you don’t know how stressful life under
that ever-present eye is until it’s gone.
But then you also realize that said watchfulness
might have some benefits. And I feel horrible saying
that. But the sheer irregularity and unpredictability
of the wild Matrix can be dangerous. Items
and entities can disguise themselves and hide in
ways you might not begin to suspect. And the underlying
code of a host may be unstable, so that
moving in that host is like walking on the floating
rocks in a river of molten lava—you don’t know
how thin or hot they might be, when they might
disappear into liquid, and when flames might suddenly
erupt from anyplace. And even that image
is more stable and predictable than some parts of
the wild Matrix—rather than worrying about flames
breaking out, you might be worried about, oh, I
don’t know, a vine covered in razor-sharp thorns
suddenly thrusting out and wrapping around you.
Or maybe the rocks you’re stepping on don’t melt,
but instead turn into psychotic clowns with slippery
torsos and glue-covered hands, and they
grab at you and laugh with a sound that not only
turns your stomach like the worst flu you’ve ever
experienced but also comes with a torrent of small
rocks that hits your skin like sandpaper, wearing
down the outer few layers.
Still, even in the chaos, the thrill of being able to
do what you want without GOD even thinking of
interfering with you occasionally returns. It’s not a
bad feeling.
STRUCTURES
ARE UNSTABLE
I mentioned this above, but when you venture
into the wild, you can’t expect the Matrix to
behave like it normally does. If you don’t know
what this is like, talk to some mage or shaman
acquaintance about what it’s like to go through
an area of wildly fluctuating mana, where one
moment a spell might completely fizzle out, the
next it might blow up in your face. Honestly, if
they’re lucky, they’ve never experienced such a
thing so they can’t explain it, but those few who
have can tell you that it’s a nightmare. When
you run the shadows, you lean on certain tools

KILL CODE This is serious drek. There was one time I was in a wild
host, and the sculpting was … well, this is one of the
challenges of the wild Matrix—trying to describe it often
comes off like some street corner burnout talking about
their latest tripchip flight. But it was like a kind of forest of
rock spires that were tall, thin, and teetering, some with
stairs winding up their sides, others with rickety ladders
perched against them. The floor wasn’t a good place to
be—it was covered with caltrop-like spikes and prowled
by wild programs that didn’t seem to mind the spikes. So
I was learning how to navigate by moving from spire to
spire, often using ladders to propel me from one spire
to another (which works in the Matrix because I’m so
fragging graceful in there that I make Olympians look
like cement-shoe-clad hippos), and at one point I was on
a ladder that was at least twenty meters high, and only
one foot on the highest rung, when the ladder abruptly
turned into matchsticks and the ground was covered with
straw. The movement of the ladder caused friction that set
it alight, and it in turn set the ground in fire.
Long story short, I still feel traces of the headache I
had when I finally logged out.
> Glitch
> I really need to get to know Glitch beyond his role as an
admin here.
> Ma’Fan
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
158 INTO THE WILD >>

KILL CODE If you can get a long look at the base code of a
protosapient—and somehow understand it—you’d
have some info worth more than a few nuyen to a
number of corps.
> Netcat
> Leave them alone. What did they ever do to you?
> Puck
> Wrapped a tentacle around my head and put some sort of
needle into my brain that left my right arm twitching for
like six weeks. Thanks for asking.
> Netcat
A FEW EXAMPLES
No one, of course, has exhaustively identified all,
or even most, of the wild hosts out there, so don’t
expect to find anything close to a complete guide
to them. But in case you want to try your hand at
exploring some of these areas, here are some of
the hosts I know about.
THE KNOWN UNIVERSE
This host revels in three-dimensional movement.
Almost all of the locations in it are fairly small—a
simple platform, a single-room house, or a threeflat
brownstone are some examples. Gravity here
is odd, working in whatever way each location
requires. For a house or other building, gravity is
whatever the orientation of the building determines
is “down.” If it’s a sphere (a small one—the
largest spherical locations here are about a kilometer
in diameter) gravity pulls you to the center
of the ball, which presents a weird perspective as
someone walks away from you and curves over
the horizon. And typically on a platform, you
can walk on either flat side. Movement from location
to location is done by jumping and floating.
While you can “breathe” anywhere in this
host, once you’re away from a location (like more
than five meters or so) it’s like you’re floating
in a zero gravity vacuum, with all the pleasures
and difficulties that come with it. If you’re floating
between locations and are off track in getting
to your desired organization, you need to make
a course adjustment, which is not easy. Simply
waving your arms won’t do much to change your
direction, because physics. Blowing does a little
more, but if you need to adjust by more than a
meter or so, you risk hyperventilation. Best solution?
Program yourself up a can of compressed
air or some sort of aerosol and use it as a mini
booster engine.
> Aerosol? Come on—fire extinguisher! Go big or go home!
> Slamm-0!
So that’s how you move around. But what can
you find there? With the available plots of land
being so small, the larger ones are treasured and
frequently fought over. There is one house, a
three-story Queen Anne-style home, that is treasured
by many of the denizens of this host, and
they fight over it frequently. They value the structure
too much to directly bombard it, so the house

KILL CODE The fact that there are a fair amount of cyberwerewolves
in this host only adds to the horror.
> Netcat
The reasons the house is so valued are not
entirely clear. Yes, it’s large and comfortable, but
is that really worth the cost of living in constant
combat and terror? There has to be something
else going on. Some people have posited that
each location in this host actually corresponds to
another place on the Matrix, and that controlling
the location gives you extra advantages in whatever
place it corresponds to. But I don’t have clear
information on where those corresponding locations
may be, or what advantages are gained.
Perhaps more credible, in my mind, is that the
house is a spawning ground for AIs and protosapients.
I’ve never been inside, but reports say there
is a basement door near the rear kitchen (yeah,
there are two kitchens) that appears to lead to a
basement, and there is a glow around the edges as
if some sort of light is always on behind it. Behind
that door, Matrix creatures are spawned, and there
are many who would like to gain access to such a
spot.
> The same people who wanted to “study” technomancers
are highly interested in finding ways to essentially enslave
AIs. The idea is that you’d get all the strengths of an agent,
but the intelligence and creativity of a sapient being.
> Cosmo
> The idea is that anyone who would do that is a monster.
> Puck
All the locations near this house are staging or
planning areas for beings who want to take it over.
Beyond that? It’s mostly unknown to me.
THE SINTAX LAIR
Want your mind blown into tiny particles of dust?
Go here. You may have heard of SINtaxes, besuited
and weirdly jointed beings that wander the
Matrix and mess things up. Well, this spot belongs
to them, and pretty much the rest of the
Matrix is happy to let them have it. Descriptions
of this place are useless, because almost nothing
conforms to reality as we know it. Even frequent
metaplanar travelers find this place odd and disorienting.
The best way to describe it is to think
of a time when local noise totally overwhelmed
your PAN, or something in your glasses or contacts
or whatever viewing device you were using
went on the fritz, so that instead of making AROs
that looked like things you are accustomed to
seeing, you got distortions and weird blocks of
color, and nothing cohered into any clear thing.
Now make everything around you like that, all
the time.
The exceptions to this are the SINtaxes themselves.
They remain clear and sharp, for reasons I
cannot begin to explain. They move through their
blasted home, constantly re-arranging what already
seems to be hopelessly distorted. At least they
seem less jittery in this realm than they do in other
parts of the Matrix, and they usually let non-SINtaxes
pass by without harassment, or even attention.
There may well be some secrets buried in all
the distortion, but damned if I know what, or
where, it is.
> The secret of the SINtaxes’ existence, and their purpose,
might well be hidden in this host. The deeper the corps
drill into the foundations, the more interested in that
information they will be.
> The Smiling Bandit
THE KINGDOM OF VELKAR
I started with some weird an disorienting places,
so let’s end this section with something a little easier
on the eyes, though no less confounding. The
Kingdom of Velkar is the fantasy kingdom of your
dreams. Snow-capped mountains rise into sapphire
skies, where the clouds are light and fluffy,
unless a dramatically appropriate storm is needed.
Ivory castles overlook fertile valleys, and they
have colorful pennants snapping in the breeze.
Proud horses with mighty legs and flowing manes
carry knights who wear armor that gleams almost
as bright as their pure, white teeth. The occasional
dragon wheels overhead, only to be chased away
by fire emerging from the fingertips of a wizard
standing watch in a soaring tower. The princes and
princesses are all gentle, lovely, and forever waiting
for some brave soul to come rescue them from
whatever plight they have gotten themselves into.
The ogres, trolls, and other creatures that roam the
land are fierce and frightening, but still possess
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
160 INTO THE WILD >>

KILL CODE How did I not know you have been there? Have you met
Lord Thisslesmoke? Isn’t he the worst?
> Slamm-0!
> Sooooo bad! I mean, literally, the worst! I really want to sit
the king down and explain how badly he’s being yanked
around, but I can never get him to sit still long enough to
make this clear.
> Pistons
> Wait, you’ve met the king?
> Slamm-0!
> Quick conversations, while he goes from one place to
another, usually. Make a connection with Esdrilla, the
castle steward. She can set you up and help you deal with
the weird layout of Castle Stukoria.
> Pistons
> Esdrilla? I have problems with her. She usually doesn’t
say much to me, just walks past and glares.
> Slamm-0!
> Were you a dick to her at some point?
> Pistons
> Hmm. All right, you make a strong point. I’ll try to make it
up to her.
> Slamm-0!
> Aaaaaand I think that’s enough of the local color for now.
You guys can take your conversation elsewhere. But while
I’m talking, let me ask this—is there any indication that
any part of this kingdom existed before the Yellowstone
Incident?
> Glitch
GETTING PAID
Now that we’ve covered a little bit about what
you can expect to find in the untamed parts of
the Matrix, let’s take a look at who will send you
there, because risking your brain for free is not
something we should be doing.
EVO
Who else? Part of Evo’s corporate culture is that
they never know where the next marketable idea
will come from. Look at the Monads. Did they
plan that whole situation? Hell, no. They started
looking at how to digitize consciousness. Then
they helped foment an AI rebellion. Then some
of those rebels came into new bodies, and Evo
welcomed those that they could get along with.
Then these individuals’ new ways of thinking led
to some of the killer new tech discussed in the
Street Lethal download.
If Evo could get some marketable tech through
that process, who’s to say they won’t find something
by exploring the untamed parts of the Matrix?
Untold software breakthroughs might be
waiting there for them, and they will throw a little
money in that direction to find them. So work your
Evo contacts and convince them that you should
be sent on safari. Be warned, though—if you don’t
show results before too long, you’ll lose your funding.
And maybe your thumbs.
> Don’t just wander in with some hothead decker and think
Evo will throw money at you. Significant programming
skill is needed. Show them that you know what you’re
doing.
> Beaker
GRID OVERWATCH
DIVISION
Yeah, that’s right! You can sleep with the enemy!
But the logic here is simple—who has more need
to know about emerging Matrix threats than
GOD? And where is the best hiding place for
emerging threats? Plus, it’s not like GOD agents
have so much time on their hands that they can
stage their own expeditions.
They’re also not naïve. They know that the
people with the skills, flexibility, and creativity to
handle these explorations are likely to be shadowrunners,
so they know that’s who they will need to

KILL CODE Yes, because I want to give more power to the people who
try to make my life hell.
> Slamm-0!
> Who said the information you supply has to be accurate?
> Netcat
MITSUHAMA
> Oh, come on! GOD, and now this? What’s the next entry,
time-traveling Hitler?
> Netcat
Mitsuhama is nowhere as loose and informal in
this area as Evo, but they do plenty of tech work,
so they might find value in some of your explorations.
Just don’t think you’re going to go in cold.
With MCT, your best bet is to find something on
your own, then bring it to them and show them it’s
valuable. If you do that right, they may want exclusive
rights to whatever you find next, and that
means payment in advance.
The easiest way to get MCT interested in something
is to show them some way it could be used
in Matrix security. They love that drek. Show them
a way to use a protosapient in some VR system,
or hack your way through some particularly dense
Matrix undergrowth and then show MCT the code
that caused you so much difficulty. The best part
of it is, you should know the weaknesses of whatever
you give them better than anyone else, so
you’ll have a leg up.
> Yeah, and if any AIs find out you squealed to Renraku
about them, they’ll be delighted! They certainly won’t plot
revenge!
> Puck
WUXING
Is there feng shui in the Matrix? There are spirited
debates about this occurring inside Wuxing
and its various subsidiaries, but there are enough
people who both believe it’s a thing and who
have access to funding to give us something to
do in this area. A lot of Wuxing’s attention will focus
on protosapients, due to their unpredictability
and their tendency to mess up any hosts that
they visit. Any info you can provide about keeping
protosapients away, repelling them should
they wander in, and repairing any damage they
cause would be of interest to Wuxing. The other
subject they’re interested in is more complicated—the
nature of foundations and how wild hosts
sometimes spring up from them. My expeditions
to these uncharted parts of the Matrix have not
helped me understand this with any degree of
confidence, but if you can do better than me,
have at it.
> The upshot of this entire section is fairly simple: Corps like
control and predictability. Encroaching chaos makes them
nervous. Convince them that you can enhance the former
and reduce the latter, and it can be worth money to them.
> Mr. Bonds
> That last sentence should read “Leaving a backdoor for
yourself should be a standard part of any code you ever
give a corp. Also, share with your friends.”
> Slamm-0!
RENRAKU
No corporation is as eager to learn about AIs they
don’t know about as Renraku. Need I say more?
Convince them you’ll dig up things they don’t
know about AIs, and they may send some money
your way. It’s that simple.
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
162 INTO THE WILD >>

KILL CODE

KILL CODE
THE CORE OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
POSTED BY: G-NOME
AND TECH-SPLORER
G: When Glitch posted Untamed Wilderness
over in Howling Shadows, I don’t think even he realized
the massive can of worms he was opening
up. And, I mean worms, literally! My work in the
same drop has gotten me more fame than I cared
for, and the attention of a particularly unfriendly
group of runners who hate gnomes—me in particular—for
reasons I haven’t bothered to look up.
Thanks to some assistance from a few members
here, I built a debt. I agreed to pay off the debt
by helping out a youngster with a similar focus
in her life as me but a drastically different field of
exploration. Tech-splorer was handed to me as a
protégé of sorts, and I helped teach her that research
and scientific endeavors in the Matrix are
not so different from the physical world—many
of the same principles apply. Together we delved
into the Matrix, far and wide (this place is huge,
FYI), and started hunting, studying, and discovering
the virtual wildlife that Glitch was kind enough
to brush the surface of. Cyberwerewolf may be a
terrifying set of thirteen letters, but yogi beats it in
scariness and has only four letters, though they are
drastically different creatures.
T: Thank you, Grandpa G, for your stunning introduction.
Now let the expert take it from here.
I’ll skip over the origin speculation because the research
is garbage, just like the stuff they’ve done
on technomancers like myself. The quick and dirty
is, the Matrix got big and has grown beyond our
understanding, and things have emerged from it
across the kingdoms of life. Yes, that means there
are emerged bacteria and several species of rather
interesting phytoplankton, but what matters here
is what matters to the shadows. In that area we focus
on two things: what makes us dead, and what
makes us money!
Let the good times roll!
TECHNOCRITTERS
First up on our safari of the Matrix are technocritters.
Those adorable little Emergent species look
just like your average animal but devour data like
a deadly datavirus, or they make your virtual life
miserable for no apparent reason. As I said, they’re
everywhere, but I’ll highlight the exciting ones and
let Grandpa G drop a note here and there, always
preceded with a big G, so no one confuses my hip
techno-savvy with his old-world jungle jabbering.
G: Thank you. Important to note here is that
we have yet to record a member of every species,
but based on current data and Emergence rates,
the technosapience phenomenon will continue
to increase, just as it has among metahumans.
Also, much like those same metahumans, the
fields of magic and Resonance do not mix. We
have yet to locate an Emergent paranormal species,
but we continue our search for what would
be an extraordinary find.
> I’ll just say this here at the start. Rumors are rampant that
the entire goal of technocritter research is to locate an
Emergent paracritter or find a way to develop Emergent
abilities in a normal paracritter.
> Beaker
> I know full well the research funding for this entire
G-Nome/Tech-splorer effort is being put up by Hestaby. I
don’t know her mind, but I can imagine this project has
more to do with expanding her support base than actually
developing an understanding of these new creatures.
> Frosty
Much like good ol’ Glitch said in his initial evaluation,
most of these Emergent critters seem generally
similar across broad phylogenic groups. Individual
variations exist here and there but it has
not been found in our studies that species vary on
an individual basis or that major variances occur
within any of our selected criteria.
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)
164 THE CORE OF CONSCIOUSNESS >>

The names listed below are a subspecies taxonomic
addition that is used to indicate Resonance
sensitivity and control. Example: Ursus
Arctos Yogi is an emergent Brown Bear (in case
any of you cared to be educated on the science
side). If no one has managed to create a witty
subspecies name, or hasn’t named it after themselves
or their pet cat, the Emergent subspecies
is denoted with the technicus nomenclature. No,
no one has been so bold as to tag metahumans
with that, but that’s just because the scientific
community has gone soft and doesn’t want to
risk being overruled by some Corp Court bigwig
with a hard-on for getting things named after
them.
> Guess we know G-Nome’s soft spot.
> Clockwork
YOGI
The ursines, or bears to the common folk, have
been tagged with the adorable Yogi name, in reference
to some ancient cartoon or campground
or some such garbage. The original Yogi apparently
had an insatiable appetite for “pic-a-nic”
baskets, which observers (in this case G-Nome)
translated into the Emergent bears’ insatiable
need to go after data and personas. This means
the yogis are attracted to metahumanity in ways
that don’t balance well with their size and animal
instincts.
Those“Do Not Feed The Bears” signs are easy
enough to obey when they come looking for
snacks to be tossed at them, but when they approach
looking to devour your nav data, or contacts,
or that special file you hide as “Old Text
Files,” you don’t get a lot of choice unless you’re
running with some serious firewall.
That attraction also draws them toward labs
and facilities buried back in the wilds for secrecy,
but the yogis can sniff them out like a deer carcass.
They roam the periphery, sometimes getting
enough little nibbles of data from straggling
files and commlinks, other times pushing boundaries
and testing security. Usually, after the first
encounter, the security teams learn to shut down
their wireless, but stupid is more common than
smart in that field, so yogis can usually get two or
three meals out of a sec detail before they realize
what’s going on. They often get a little meat in
the deal too, when the guard decides to try to
“unjam” his gun, not realizing it’s a brick with no
operating system because the yogi ate it, right
before it ate him. This obviously affects us when
we work a site that has a yogi about, by accident,
but several of these facilities have a series of commlinks
along the perimeter where they upload
data to lure the yogis and move them around like
guards walking the perimeter. When they get full,
they either wander off, sit down and do nothing,
or head out to feed their biological needs. They
aren’t easy to control.
G: The yogi is a high-value target for bounty
hunters, but only live specimens earn the reward.
No way to tell a regular bear from a yogi when
they’re dead. A standard and smart yogi hunt is
like a step back in time. Hunters use blowguns,
air-powered tranq guns with zero electronics,
and even nets to try to snag these big beasts.
Once they nab a target, the hunters have to keep
them tranqed or have a sizable faraday cage, or
else they risk having their stuff bricked by a napping
bear.
> Faraday cages do a decent job to keep these things in
check while they’re being transported, but from what I
hear, it makes them quite violent. Getting blocked from
the Matrix angers them something fierce. Issues come
up the moment they open the cage or the field gets
broken. The yogi will go nuts.
> Stone

KILL CODE Al’s on the Bayou is located about a kilometer from an
MCT research facility in south Florida. They have some of
the best gator tail and gator meat dishes in the area, and
166 THE CORE OF CONSCIOUSNESS >>
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

KILL CODE 2XL
B A R S W L I C ESS EDG RES
8 5 4 9 1 1 2 2 6 3 6
Initiative 6 + 1D6
Movement x2/x6/+4
Condition 14/9
Monitor
Limits Physical 10, Mental 2, Social 4
Armor 6
Physical Skills Perception 4, Sneaking 4, Tracking 4, Unarmed
Combat 4
Matrix Skills Computer 4, Cybercombat 8, Electronic Warfare
4, Hacking 5, Software 8
Complex Forms Diffusion of Firewall, Infusion of Attack,
Puppeteer, Resonance Spike
Powers Armor (6), AR-Parallelism, Blend, Enhanced
Senses (Smell), Natural Weapon [Bite, DV (STR+2)
P, AP –2], Resonance Feed, Toughness (2)
TESTUDINES
Trying to uncover a technicus testudine is quite
the shell game. As punny and terrible as that
sounds, it’s actually not a joke. The technicus variant
among every testudine species we managed
to uncover had a similar perfection to the pattern
of their shell. Sections were perfectly sized, and
the patterns within each shell section, once analyzed,
were fractals. The patterns are not easily
identified by simple observation because the repeated
pattern is often disrupted by scars or dirt.
Similar to pachyderms, the testudines have a
protective rather than destructive nature when
it comes to data and personas. The difference
comes in the apparent psychology behind the
action. Testudines tend to gather and hoard their
acquisitions, often creating a virtual stockpile
within the Matrix. The stockpile is held within a
self-made host. This is the single most amazing
thing about the testudine technicus group. As a
whole they have the ability to create a small host,
usually tucked away near a larger corporate host
and siphoning off a small amount of processing
power. The hosts are well hidden in the clutter of
whatever Matrix traffic or detritus is in the area.
Sometimes, a particularly sly technicus testudine
will manage to hide its host within another host,
like a tumor, or even drop their data well into the
Foundation.
Turtles and their kin are historically well-known
for their slowness, and that stereotype seems to
carry over into the Matrix. They are remarkably
slow to act, but they are relentless in their longterm
operations, often working to gather or access
data at a pace that can’t be detected without
complex algorithms or extended observation.
This makes their hosts a great place to locate more
broad-based paydata or older corp info for a prospective
Mr. Johnson, but it also fills their little data
nooks with bits and pieces of all sorts of other files,
meaning you may go to snag a file for Mr. Johnson,
only to find that a portion of the data is now missing,
because a nearby technicus testudine has been
nibbling away at it.
G: It is not outside the realm of possibility for a
skilled wrangler to offer an e-turtle (I like that better)
a place to hang and then occasionally pop in
and sift through the data they’ve siphoned off of
local sources. Moving around from place to place
with the little guy can yield a lot of random paydata.
> Plus, most sheeple find some weirdo with a pet turtle to
be odd. Odd enough that they leave you alone.
> Mika
> Personal experience?
> Ma’fan
> We all have a youth where we often leave behind all sorts
of friends. Tank will forever hold a piece of my heart. He
protected me from many an unpleasantry.
> Mika
B A R S W L I C ESS EDG RES
4 2 1 2 3 2 2 2 6 4 6
Initiative 3 + 1D6
Movement 2/4/+0.5 (4/8/+1 Swimming)
Condition 12/10
Monitor
Limits Physical 3, Mental 3, Social 5
Armor 8
Physical Skills Diving 3, Perception 4, Swimming 4, Unarmed
Combat 3
Matrix Skills Computer 3, Cybercombat 4, Electronic Warfare
4, Hacking 4, Software 5
Complex Forms Diffusion of Attack, Diffusion of Data Processing,
Infusion of Firewall, Pulse Storm, Resonance
Hosting, Resonance Spike
Powers AR-Parallelism, Blend, Munge, Resonance Feed,
Toughness (2)

KILL CODE >

KILL CODE Interesting. I’ve heard of places like that in the slums of
New Delhi, also associated with the local monkeys that
roam the region. I imagine it’s eerie in the the jungle, but
imagine one of these voids in a massive urban sprawl
that is usually crawling with people and things, and
suddenly you have a space the size of a football stadium
where objects and buildings have been smashed and
dismantled, but the whole place is wall-to-wall AROs.
> Traveler Jones
GEF
Never underestimate the amount of information
one person can have on a single subject.
That’s the lesson I took from trying to argue with
G-Nome about why we should lump the gef, the
technicus mongooses we discovered, in with the
iPodos. Not only did he school me on the vast differences
between the two in classification, but he
also went on to actually pull up virtual skeletons
to point out differences in structures, followed
by a long diatribe on the behavioral differences,
and finally a titillating dissertation on cultural
and geographical variations between the two,
including the strange legend that gave us the
name “gef.” At some point I either have to learn
to shut up and not open my mouth on topics I
don’t know about, or pick up a book beforehand
and maybe show him I’m trying. That’s my relatively
brief way of pointing out to the readers that
they’re different.
From a Matrix activity standpoint, they’re drastically
different, but their efforts in one reality often
mirror their efforts in the other. The classic battle
of mongoose and cobra plays out in the Matrix
as gef vs. ahi. So much so that fight promoters in
the Indian Union pay big money for the capture of
both ahi and gef, so that they can put on a crazy
fight that spans both the Matrix and meatworld.
Gef are fighters, and their Resonance talents reflect
that in a big way. They focus on locating and
destroying their prey.
G: The gef are far more violent than their mundane
kin. Their access to the Matrix seems to
make them hyper-aggressive, and even the smallest
activity can be seen as a threat. They’re known
for attacking prey and targets that are significant-

KILL CODE >
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

KILL CODE That’s funny. I looked up that movie—oh ghost, it’s terribly
wonderful—and I know a kid named Dar who has a pair
of pet “ferrets” named Podo and Kodo. The quotes are
because Podo and Kodo are actually greater grison (I
looked it up). He claims to have picked them up in Cancun
on a vacation, and the three of them hacked the cruise
ship, customs, and the airline to get them back to the
states. They’re both technicus and he’s a technomancer.
They live near St. Louis, and he’s developing quite the rep
for having the right data or knowing how to get the right
data, likely with the help of his little friends.
> /dev/grrl
> Can’t imagine what the infamous honey badger does with
tech and data it gets its mental claws on. Probably need
some form of repair program to gather any useful data
that one of those things might have gathered.
> Slamm-0!
B A R S W L I C ESS EDG RES
1 2 2 1 4 1 2 3 6 5 6
Initiative 4 + 1D6
Movement x2/x6/+4
Condition 8/10
Monitor
Limits Physical 2, Mental 3, Social 6
Armor 0
Physical Skills Gymnastics 3, Perception 3, Sneaking 3, Tracking
4, Unarmed Combat 3
Matrix Skills Computer 5, Cybercombat 3, Electronic Warfare
5, Hacking 6, Software 5
Complex Forms Diffusion of Firewall, Diffusion of Attack, Infusion of
Sleaze, Pulse Storm, Puppeteer, Resonance Spike
Powers AR-Parallelism, Blend, Gremlins, Holographic
Concealment, Munge, Natural Weapon [Bite: DV
(STR+1)P, AP —, 1 Reach], Resonance Feed, Tunnel
Weaknesses Fragile 1
Note
The physical stats given are specifically for
ferrets, but they generally reflect this group. Add
1 to all physical stats for otters and badgers; add 2
for wolverines.
ENERGIZER
There are plenty of famous bunnies and rabbits for
these to get named after, but Energizer was our
hands-down favorite. First observation we made
was the sudden jump in processing power that
any system gets when accessed by an Energizer.
It’s universal in its effect, and whether or not this is
beneficial to the creature, it happens. The processing
boost is usually quite beneficial as the Energizers
usually gain access to a host or device and then
immediately begin replicating files. The process has
a twofold gain, the flood of activity masks the presence
of the critter in the Matrix and offers a massive
abundance of data to snatch, snag, and snack
on. The data copies usually flood the memory of
the device in question or throw a host into a sea of
file copies to muddy up all the other activities on it.

KILL CODE Thanks to a still-existent German subculture and abundant
rabbits, you can get some of the best hasenpfeffer in the
world in the CZ. They have a lot of local variations, but
several cooks in the area keep a solid traditional spin on
it. It is amazing.
> Traveler Jones
B A R S W L I C ESS EDG RES
1 5 4 1 2 1 3 3 6 8 6
Initiative 7 + 2D6
Movement 5/30/+2
Condition 5/9
Monitor
Limits Physical 3, Mental 3, Social 5
Armor 0
Physical Skills Gymnastics 4, Perception 6 (Hearing +2),
Running 8, Unarmed Combat 2
Matrix Skills Computer 4, Cybercombat 2, Electronic Warfare
5, Hacking 5, Software 5
Complex Forms Diffusion of Attack, Infusion of Data Processing,
Pulse Storm, Resonance Spike, Resonance Veil,
Static Bomb
Powers AR-Parallelism, Blend, Enhanced Senses
(Wideband Hearing, Low-Light), Holographic
Concealment, Resonance Feed
Weaknesses Fragile (4)
G33K0S
These are the most obnoxious little bastards on the
planet, and I’m going to jam the name I’m giving
them down everyone’s throat because every little
one of these things should be geeked! G-Nome
had issues with the primates; I have major issues
with these little gear-trashing monsters. I have no
problem with a technocritter that wants to start
slinging code to trash my gear. I can defend against
that. Problem is, these little bastards sneak in when
you aren’t using your gear, or even sneak onto you
when you are, and then they overheat your stuff
to give them some warmth. This isn’t acceptable.
Come at me on the Matrix, but don’t be creeping
into my pocket or my gear bag and making my ’link
get sizzling hot because you have serious temperature
issues. If you didn’t want to be cold-blooded,
you shouldn’t have evolved that way. I know that’s
not how it works, but I’m pissed.
G: Had to get one of these away from the edit
program before he fried a circuit in his own brain
instead of the antique (but fully functional) Atari
2600 that got melted down by a lizard we picked
up in Florida that climbed into his luggage. The little
guy sensed the early-generation wireless connector
and hooked itself up, using its ability to offer a
small power boost to light it up long enough for reprogramming.
I don’t know why so many of these
critters can interact with old tech, but research is
underway.
One already apparent fact about the g33k0s
is that they are expanding their habitat. They are
shifting to places lizards aren’t normally present
because of their ability to overheat devices and use
that heat for a nest and eggs. Major structures in cities
all over the northern and southern hemispheres
are getting lizards. They hitch a ride with travelers,
cooking some of their equipment for warmth, and
eventually find a place to settle and then expand
from there. They’re a primarily indoor problem in
most cooler cities, but summer months allow for
extensive expansion and invasion. They aren’t an
apex-level species, but they still rock the local ecosystem
boat. They also breed true at an astonishing
rate, varying from seventy-five percent to one hundred
percent in broods that we have studied. I have
almost all of the data correlated, and it appears the
technicus trait in most of the small lizard species relates
to egg temperature during incubation, similar
to crocodilian gender being determined through
temperature-dependent sex determination, or TSD.
> I’ve known about these things for awhile. I’ve spent a bit
of time in building vents, and these little lizards love to use
them to move around buildings and look for their next bit
of gear. I actually caught a few of them and bred them.
172 THE CORE OF CONSCIOUSNESS >>
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

KILL CODE Mika
> Caught?
> Ma’fan
> Ever keeping me a little honest, eh Ma’fan? Sure, they got
into my gear. Lost a burner ’link (haha) but gained a great
new tool.
> Mika
B A R S W L I C ESS EDG RES
1 4 4 1 2 1 3 2 6 2 6
Initiative 7 + 1D6
Movement 2/8/+0.5
Condition 3/9
Monitor
Limits Physical 3, Mental 3, Social 5
Armor 1
Physical Skills Gymnastics 3, Perception 4, Running 2, Unarmed
Combat 2
Matrix Skills Computer 3, Cybercombat 3, Electronic Warfare
5, Hacking 4, Software 4
Complex Forms Diffusion of Attack, Diffusion of Firewall, Infusion
of Sleaze, Pulse Storm, Puppeteer, Resonance
Spike
Powers AR-Parallelism, Blend, Cozenge, Holographic
Concealment, Resonance Feed
Weaknesses Fragile (6)
RYBBYTS
Yup, it’s time to talk frogs and toads that can, for
some ghost-only-knows-why reason, connect to
the Matrix. I’m not sure why I feel like this is the
one category of animal that just shouldn’t have a
place in the Matrix, but I do. With said belief, I put
a lot of effort into ignoring any and all value these
brought to the table, and I might have actually
put some effort into sabotaging some research
stations G-Nome and I set up.
Does that really sound like me? If you don’t
know me, it doesn’t, but that’s what G-Nome saw
when he checked out the footage from the stations
we set up near every ghost-damned monitoring
station for any kind of frog or toad. From the depths
of the Amazonian jungle to the deserts of the PCC,
every single piece of data featured edited footage,
usually compiled from additional files located on
our own commlinks. The rybbyts hack in, snag bits
of video and audio footage, and then splice it into
the feed watching them. One particularly creative
one spliced in footage of a behemoth (the Awakened
alligator) over itself. That one went viral on the
Matrix, but I digress. This particular group likes to
edit things. They change the footage of monitoring
stations they get near—trideos, videos, cameras,
microphones, and anything else short of a sim-feed
(note to self: research sim mods with frog species)
gets tweaked with its own data or data taken from
other nearby feeds. Often, the images make no
sense. They aren’t intelligent, just capable of editing
and hacking, but a loop doesn’t have to be complex
to mess up a security feed. Obviously an option for
the folks reading this!
G: First, stop saying frogs and toads. Toads are
frogs. It’s like saying frogs and more specific frogs.
As a group, frogs live everywhere but the coldest
northern and southern reaches as well as the deep
desert, but that’s their only limitation. They’re in
your local creek, they’re in local pet tanks, and
they’re hopping along the roads, forests, jungles,
deserts, and swamps of the world. The rybbyts
are just as spread out, with an apparently higher
rate of technicus evolution in species with more urban
and suburban contact, but the globalized grid
could very well be increasing Emergence in more
reclusive species.
While I was initially very angry at Tech-splorer,
I have since moved past any errors on her part to
look at this editing ability as a form of camouflage.
No matter what form of vision or audio detection
system you are using, the rybbyts are going to
avoid detection. Sure, you can analyze their presence,
but you can only study this footage in the
way astronomers study black holes by how they
affect what is around them, rather than seeing
the black hole itself. This meant I had to push my
normal natural research habits and capture a few
Emergent species to watch in captivity. Their editing
can affect anything they can gain access to,
and they try to access everything.
While small anomalies are usually common
with individuals among a group of technicus species,
the rybbyts pose an interesting divide between
the various poisonous and non-poisonous
member species, with poisonous variants actually
possessing an aggressive nature. This is strange as
the species themselves are not normally aggressive,
they simply possess an aposematic coloring
system as a defense, not as an invitation to a
fight. This interesting phenomenon among these
poisonous frogs offers a greater ability to actively

KILL CODE I didn’t have a biologist or anything of the sort, so I
didn’t perform research and can’t be sure, but I am
nearly positive two of my squads got tapped by these
little bastards during ops in Amazonia. Edits were found
in their footage, often with strange or non-sensical
changes, and quite a few pieces of tech got bricked by
a code hit that our tech team later compared to a Matrix
punji trap. A bunch of little defense holes were created,
and a bunch of feces and infectious drek-code was left
behind.
> Picador
> If you’ve got cybersenses, whether eyes and ears or just
eyes, you can use a small collection of rybbyts to give
you quite the trip. It doesn’t have the otherworldliness
of drug-induced hallucinations, but it still gives you the
whole “I’m seeing things” sensation. There’s several
rumors of a PCC training regimen used for the PhyCy
Ops guys. Once you get visual or auditory systems
replaced, you have to go through training to operate
blind or confused because the systems can get hacked.
To offer the most whacked-out drek possible, the PCC
supposedly uses rybbyts.
> Stone
B A R S W L I C ESS EDG RES
2 3 2 1 2 1 2 2 6 3 6
Initiative 5 + 1D6
Movement 2/10/+1
Condition 4/9
Monitor
Limits Physical 3, Mental 3, Social 5
Armor 0
Physical Skills Diving 2, Perception 4, Swimming 4, Unarmed
Combat 2
Matrix Skills Computer 3, Cybercombat 4, Electronic Warfare
4, Hacking 4, Software 5
Complex Forms Infusion of Attack, Editor, Pulse Storm,
Puppeteer, Resonance Spike, Static Veil
Powers AR-Parallelism, Blend, Natural Weapon (Tongue:
DV [STR)P, AP —], Resonance Feed, Venomous
Code
Weaknesses Fragile (5)
TECHWORMS
I gained a greater understanding of how hard
it is for scientists to determine the nature and
origin of the technomancer connection after
our research into the Emergent worms we call
techworms. Small, simple brains, but they can
still tear up a firewall and completely obliterate
it with enough of them working together.
They infect devices with program worms (aptly
named) and viruses intended not to just create
those aforementioned holes in the firewall but
to decrease the overall productivity of the system
and sap some of its power for themselves.
We checked out common earthworms first but
eventually expanded our studies to parasitic
worms, which can make life exceedingly difficult
for anyone using or near tech once they get settled
inside. We even went to Africa, where I got
introduced to the giant African earthworm. The
emergent specimen we found was only 1.4 meters,
but G-Nome found us several larger specimens,
including a 4.8-meter monstrosity that is
still giving me nightmares.
G: I personally wanted to bring that beautiful
beast home with me to help sort out my garden
soil, but since our return from Africa was already
costly enough, I couldn’t justify the funds to haul
it home. Had I known how scarred Tech-splorer
was, I would have ditched the case of Zulu
hooch. On a serious note, the worms of the
world are obviously touched by whatever evolution
created technomancers. Our evidence
ranged from earthworms to parasitic intestinal
and subcutaneous worms, but efforts are in the
works to seek marine techworms for study. Their
distribution isn’t as friendly for study, though,
especially with the uptick of leviathans asking
questions of every metahuman under the surface.
While we focus here on the detrimental effects
connected to the Matrix, don’t forget that
most of these parasitic worms bring with them
plenty of other issues, some life-threatening.
Getting one that happens to be able to mess with
your tech could be a gift of ghost in disguise, because
I know most people are far more likely to
notice when their commlink keeps shorting out
than when they are having odd cramps and eating
for two but losing weight.
174 THE CORE OF CONSCIOUSNESS >>
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

KILL CODE Qet is a data broker in the Andes. He accepts info via sat-link,
then loads it into one of his dot-camel alpacas or llamas—I
don’t know or care to know the difference. The heard roams
mostly free in the mountains near his base. He has tags on
all of them and knows which ones are storing what. It’s a
sweet setup, and he keeps the list of what’s stored where in
a ledger written in Olmec for protection
> The Smiling Bandit
> I’ve used Qamil, who operates out of Morocco, as a
datavault before. He uses the dot-camel method, sending
them out with his nomadic security team.
> Ma’fan
B A R S W L I C ESS EDG RES
10 3 3 8 3 1 3 4 6 3 6
Initiative 6 + 1D6
Movement 9/30/+6
Condition 17/10
Monitor
Limits Physical 10, Mental 3, Social 6
Armor 4
Physical Skills Gymnastics 3, Perception 3, Running 6, Unarmed
Combat 3
Matrix Skills Computer 4, Cybercombat 4, Electronic Warfare
6, Hacking 6, Software 6
Complex Forms Diffusion of Attack, Diffusion of Data Processing,
Infusion of Firewall, Pulse Storm, Puppeteer,
Resonance Channel, Resonance Hosting,
Resonance Spike
Powers Armor (4), AR-Parallelism, Blend, Gremlins,
Natural Weapon (Hoof: DV (STR)P, AP —, +1
Reach), Resonance Feed, Toughness (4)
E-FISH
As anyone who has ever done any diving, fishing,
or study of marine life knows, fish come with
a level of variety matched only by bugs. They
are crazy and abundant, but as most fisherman
know, they tend to congregate near ample food
supplies. The e-fish tend to be most common in
freshwater and coastal species as they’re closer
to civilization, though several have emerged
around aquacologies and other aquatic habitats
with intense Matrix infrastructures for the e-fish
to interact with, though spotting the one among
the many is nearly fragging impossible. They tend
to move in numbers and eat tiny bits of data, corrupting
it in small ways rather than destroying it
completely.
G: The vast array of species and the quantity of
fish in the waters of this vast planet made the study

KILL CODE This is horrifying! Kane, how do you live out there?
> Slamm-0!
> Have you met /dev/? I’m far more worried for the ravager
that gets in range of her deck. Stunned sharks don’t swim
well, and as most folks know, an immobile shark is not
long for this world.
> Kane
> I actually managed to snag one of those sweet hunter
decks. I had it modded for underwater use, and we have
cages on several ships to drop me in the water with the
big fishes. I got no problem going toe to fin with a ravager.
Thing that usually makes me angry is that the other ones
usually get the meal. I love shark steaks.
> /dev/grrl
176 THE CORE OF CONSCIOUSNESS >>
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

KILL CODE

KILL CODE I know at least one exec over at Gaeatronics who had a
team snatch several of these. Whenever a plant with some
reputation issues is about to get an audit, they usually
have some kind of sudden data corruption, blamed on a
protosapient AI. Total coincidence, I’m sure.
> Glitch
W L I C EDG DEPTH
20 4 4 30 4 2
Core Condition Monitor 10
Matrix Skills Computer 3, Cybercombat 5,
Electronic Warfare 4, Hacking 4
Qualities
Inherent Program (Decryption),
Munge, Real World Naïveté
Programs
Armor, Edit, Fork, Hammer,
Mugger, Shredder
SENSE EATERS
The invention of cyberware has, over the course
of the last several generations, virtually eradicated
blindness and deafness in the modern world.
There are occasionally cases of individuals who
cannot or prefer not to have cyberware installed
and remain without two of their primary senses,
but most people with those sensory limitations
get them remedied. This makes the attack of a
178 THE CORE OF CONSCIOUSNESS >>
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

KILL CODE

KILL CODE Thanks G. If you didn’t say something, I would have.
Evo accepts all kinds and they have one of the largest
Deaf populations in the world. If you ever want a true
and honest opinion about something, ask one of them.
Which means there is a group of people with more innate
resistance to a sense eater attack.
> Plan 9
> Can sense eaters be trained? Matt Wrath has a friend who
wants to know.
> Matt Wrath
> Since they are relatively primitive creatures, quite
possibly, but I don’t know any protosapient trainers.
> Netcat
> You don’t need to train them. Just box them up and then
slip the box onto a host or near devices you want them to
wreak havoc on.
> Clockwork
W L I C EDG DEPTH
3 4 7 5 3 5
Core Condition Monitor 10
Matrix Skills Computer 4, Cybercombat 4,
Electronic Warfare 6, Hacking 6
Qualities
Inherent Program (Decryption),
Munge, Real World Naïveté
Programs
Armor, Cat’s Paw, Edit, Exploit,
Fnord, Fork, Sneak, Stealth
GLITCHES
One thing that helps when you’re hunting technomancers
is regular and consistent focus on your
job. Glean some rumors from the masses, dig a little
deeper to uncover a kernel of truth, and then set
out on a globe-trotting hunt. I’ve learned to value
G-Nome’s expertise with this end of the hunting process.
Even though the Matrix is global, no one wants
several thousand kilometers between them and a
target in the modern Matrix. Signal degradation is
huge and these things already have some major advantages
on us—this is their turf, we just gain access
through devices. Even if we don’t need one—I can
access the Matrix on my own, but I might use a cyberdeck
when going after some of these things, just
to put some protection between them and my brain.
All that said, glitches are slitches that deserve
all the stitches. These damn things focus on bricking
devices that connect to the Matrix. If it has a
wireless connection, they are going after it. No big
surprise there, but it’s their style that gets me. They
don’t just slam it with code, they infuse it with errors
until it pretty much bricks itself. The process is
similar to the gradual process of tech getting out of
date. Like the commlink you bought back in 2074
that runs okay, but it’s lost a step or two over the
years. Or the one you bought back in 2070 that
doesn’t even operate with the current system without
a virtual machine between the two allowing
code to be translated. The glitches expedite that
slowdown process until the device just goes dark,
gets stuck on the lock screen, or leaves you with the
perpetual spinning beachball of doom!
All the glitches we have seen—a total of six—
have had different appearances based on the devices
they were trying to slowburn. Each appeared
as an icon for the device, or matched the persona
of the device’s user, but they always appeared
slightly fuzzy at the edges with lines of discoloration
and disruption throughout. The appearance
wasn’t static, and they changed when they moved
between devices. When not attached to a device,
they formed into a single stream of rainbow code
that shot out through the Matrix and moved on to
their next target.
> After a bad flight, I did a little digging into the avionics
system on our suborbital. The system was full of damaged
code and operating errors. It also had an appearance like
you described. I think a glitch was slowly damaging the
craft, and I’m glad I got clear when I did.
> Puck
W L I C EDG DEPTH
4 6 4 3 3 6
Core Condition Monitor 10
Matrix Skills Computer 6, Cybercombat 6,
Electronic Warfare 5, Hacking 5
Qualities
Corruptor, Easily Exploitable,
Inherent Program (Crash),
Munge, Real World Naïveté
Programs
Armor, Exploit, Fork, Shredder,
Stealth, Tantrum
SIN EATERS
These were my favorites to chase after because of
the amusement I got from watching people get
180 THE CORE OF CONSCIOUSNESS >>
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

KILL CODE I recommend you send your hacker ahead to scope out
a crossing just like you astrally recon spots with your
spellslingers. If there’s a SIN eater at a crossing, you’d best
to find another route.
> Traveler Jones
W L I C EDG DEPTH
3 4 4 5 3 6
Core Condition Monitor 10
Matrix Skills Computer 6, Cybercombat 4,
Electronic Warfare 6, Hacking 6
Qualities
Inherent Program (Edit), Munge,
Real World Naïveté
Programs
Armor, Browse, Decryption,
Exploit, Fork, Stealth, Wrapper
NOISESTORM
This was an odd one. The noisestorm appeared to
have no other purpose than to float around in the
Matrix and cover large swaths of Matrix terrain
with a massive storm of noise. Every device in the
area is affected—they can cover areas as small as
fifty meters of real space all the way up to fuzzing
up entire grids. Even worse, a few have managed
access to hosts, where they inflict the same phenomenon
in a place that is usually free of most
major noise. Efforts to attack the phenomenon
have had varying results. Most report little damage
to the noisestorm and no effect, but some
reports indicate the noisestorm being chased off.
The most common rumor is an increase in local
effect after the noisestorm is attacked, as if it is
retaliating for the attack.
G: It’s hard to draw any real parallels across
the realms of the Matrix and the astral, but
noisestorms definitely appear to be similar in
some ways to manastorms. There is no evidence
to connect them directly, but I see them as parallel
evolutionary paths, like the Tasmanian wolf and its
European equivalent.
W L I C EDG DEPTH
4 2 2 3 2 8
Core Condition Monitor 14
Matrix Skills Computer 3, Cybercombat 5,
Electronic Warfare 4, Hacking 4
Qualities
Inherent Program (Decryption),
Munge, Real World Naïveté,
Redundancy, Snooper
Programs
Armor, Encryption, Fork
Notes
Noisestorms travel in groups.
Each one covers a small area and
targets devices and personas in
its vicinity. Destroying one may
clear an area or open it up for
other noisestorms to move over.
XENOSAPIENTS
THE NULL FORMS
Thanks to Puck and his eye-opening view of something
new and dark in the Matrix, G-Nome and I got
heavily into looking for these interesting host-stealing
creatures and the strange IC they seem to command.
We thought maybe the IC was actually some
form of generated protosapient. Simple and direct,
but still not just a program. Our efforts landed us
an interesting letter, one that talked all about this
dark Matrix fear factory and the creepies it generated.
The IC seems to be little more than a program
kicked out by the Overseers—we’ll talk about them
in a minute—but he named other beings, and we
managed to dig into those as well. G-Nome was
not happy about this, as he felt this was stepping

KILL CODE >
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

KILL CODE Had a run-in with a group of these in Atlanta. Had to call in
reinforcements and still barely managed to deal with the
four onsite, when I called in twice that number of friends.
> Slamm-0!
> You have eight friends?! I call bulldrek!
> Bull
W L I C EDG DEPTH
2 7 2 1 3 6
Core Condition Monitor: 11
Limits Physical —, Mental 6, Social 6
Matrix Initiative (no device) 6 + 4D6
Matrix Initiative (w/device) 3 + Data Processing + 4D6
Skills Computer 2, Cybercombat 8,
Electronic Warfare 3, Hacking 3
Qualities
Bad Rep, Inherent Program
(Hammer), Munge, Real World
Naïveté
Programs
Authority, Armor, Blackout,
Cascade, Cat’s Paw, Decryption,
Fork, Mugger, Tantrum
CLEAR-OUT
The invisible enemy. Clear-Out are stealth masters
and exist to do nothing more than erase data.
Usually traveling in large groups, Clear-Out gain
access to their targets and then proceed to wipe
them clean, erasing everything in their path. We
found initial traces of them as part of data loss
investigations and then did some extremely exciting
(and by that, I mean boring as frag) stakeouts
of places with potential info on the masters
of this little e-cult. They are nearly impossible to
detect, but once we had erasure events in progress,
we jacked our perception enhancement
programs into full gear and managed to spot
the nearly clear humanoid outlines. They looked
something like the Black-Offs, but transparent instead
of black.
W L I C EDG DEPTH
2 3 8 4 4 6
Core Condition Monitor 10
Limits Physical —, Mental 6, Social 6
Matrix Initiative (no device) 16 + 4D6
Matrix Initiative (w/device) 8 + Data Processing + 4D6
Skills Computer 8, Cybercombat 2,
Electronic Warfare 2, Hacking 6
Qualities
Bad Rep, Inherent Program
(Edit), Low Profile, Munge, Real
World Naïveté
Programs
Armor, Fork, Sneak, Stealth
OVERSEERS
These are the masters of the hosts that get seeded.
They guide their lesser forms and corral the
protosapients that are attracted to their seeded
hosts and the vines. They are powerful foes in
their own hosts and should not be taken lightly.
With those brief statements made, I’ll toss out
an RIP Jiggy. The man brought skills to the party
and helped G-Nome and I check out one of those
vine-infested hosts (a former NeoNET lab host),
but he got too excited and didn’t know when it
was best to run.
Overseers are said to take on a form with some
relation to the host they seed. Unfortunately, I
have only seen one myself, and while it fit that
pattern, any other evidence I have of that pattern
is anecdotal.

KILL CODE >
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

KILL CODE I’ve met Grant before. He is also in charge of interviews for
access to Garmonbozia along with hiring assets to delete
rejections when they don’t take it well.
> Netcat
> All that social software is part of that second process.
Plenty of runners put on a smile and nod when they
get refused but then get pissed at the rejection. Grant
tracks their social circle and uses some solid bio-reading
equipment to check the honesty of their acceptance. To
gather the data, a runner team is often hired to get the
subject talking about Garmonbozia, then other members
of the team hit them with biodata readers. Relatively
easy work if you’ve got a decent face, but sometimes
dangerous when you run across someone who really
wants to protect the Garmonbozia secret in order to gain
more favor and maybe earn access.
> Balladeer
> I appreciate the importance of keeping Garmonbozia
a secret, but they popped on and deleted files on
JackPoint. That’s fragging bogus and I’ll continue to
allow users to call it the G-Spot instead of its full name.
“To protect their secret!”
> Bull
> They want to frag with us for helping them? Then forget
about them. Simple.
> Hexatite
> Not everyone on JackPoint is a white hat. We should
remember that.
> Kane
W L I C EDG DEPTH
5 3 4 4 2 4
Core Condition Monitor 12
Matrix Skills
Computer 3, Con 6, Cybercombat
4, Electronic Warfare 4, Etiquette
6, Gunnery 2, Hacking 6,
Intimidation 4, Negotiations 5,
Software 3
Qualities
Codeslinger (Hack on the Fly),
Inherent Program (Decryption),
Linguist, Perceptive,
Redundancy, Trustworthy
Programs
Armor, Cat’s Paw, Edit, Encryption,
Exploit, Fork, Guard, Hammer,
Stealth
HITSEC BURN
Sometimes you gotta call a spade a spade. Hitsec
Burn is a program so far beyond damaged that no
one, not even his tragic inventor, would miss him
if he were gone. Scouring the Matrix for info on
this electronic assassin was tough, but everything
I found just painted a blacker and blacker picture.
Hitsec focuses on one thing and one thing only:
eradicating and removing people from the Matrix,
usually in a permanent fashion. As he also lacks
any concept of morals or rules for his actions, removing
a single hacker by burning down a building
or crashing a suborbital isn’t out of the question.
I would recommend that if you ever end up on
Hitsec’s list (and finding out that you’re on the list is
not that difficult, which is weird), you call in every
data slicing master you can find and set a trap. It
may not work—Hitsec is sly—but it’s the best option
for getting two desirable results, namely: you survive,
and he doesn’t. This thing needs to be erased.
Operationally, Hitsec has taken jobs all over the
world. Recent operations have jumped across four
continents and fourteen different grids over the span
of only three days. It was an effort to clean up a line of
hackers that had accessed a file from MCT. Whether
this was contracted or personal, I don’t know, though I
lean toward the former with the megacorporate connection.
The attacks covered a variety of styles includ-

KILL CODE Hitsec is a pro. Collateral damage is considered as part
of the way he works. It doesn’t make him any worse than
half of us. In truth, with the kind of exposure and access
Hitsec has managed, he might be a solid replacement
here for Riser. He reminds me a lot of that drekbag,
but that drekbag had a ton to teach the rest of us about
surviving at any cost.
> Balladeer
W L I C EDG DEPTH
6 4 7 5 4 9
Core Condition Monitor 14
Matrix Skills
Computer 3, Con 8, Cybercombat
9, Electronic Warfare 4, Gunnery
8, Hacking 8, Intimidation 8, Pilot
Aircraft 5, Pilot Ground Craft 5
Qualities
Inherent Program (Decryption),
Perceptive, Redundancy,
Snooper
Programs
Armor, Biofeedback, Blackout,
Cascade, Cat’s Paw, Decryption,
Edit, Fork, Hammer, Mugger,
Sneak, Stealth, Tantrum, Tarball
DERRICK OWEN
SLATTERY
Denver is doing some goofy stuff, and this guy is
leading the charge. Currently a Denver native, he
is operating at the forefront of collaborative efforts
between Danielle de la Mar, Ghostwalker/Whitebird,
and Erika to install the newest Matrix in Denver
as a test city. Ghostwalker’s recent power grab
is offering the white worm a lot of leeway in how
to run his city. Among his efforts is a change in the
Matrix that could drastically change the life of hackers.
Derrick is looking to help because he finds the
increased security and limited access style for this
next Matrix adjustment a definite improvement in
the lives of Matrix denizens. According to some
pieces I listened to, he considers the current open
Matrix akin to allowing anyone to walk into your
home, but having locks on drawers or nailed-down
furniture. He wants a Matrix that feels more like a
home with a solid lock on the door, where once you
are inside, things don’t need to be locked down—
not because they aren’t valuable, but because anyone
who would want to take them won’t get access.
Now, we all know that hackers will always find
a way, but if access is more limited and direct, they
won’t be offered the full buffet.
Derrick focuses on the control and coordination
aspect of these new systems and has a lot
of big support with Ghostwalker and de la Mar.
Those are big guns in the Sixth World, both carrying
momentum from their successes, rather than
fighting their way back from some loss of face or
loss of standing.
> In the Denver shadows he goes by DOS and runs virtual
meets for runners as a Mr. Johnson looking to sew a little
virtual discord. Rumor is he’s the one who engineered the
animosity between the Nexus and JackPoint by setting up
contract hits. The money behind them was never enough
to get real pros interested, but it managed to drive some
solid wedges between us.
> Ire
> Where’d you get that data?
> Glitch
> I’ve been playing this game a long time and I’ve been
settled in Denver for a minute. I’ve got my finger on the
pulse of the Free Zone at the moment, but it’s beating fast
and change is popping up at every turn. I love it!
> Ire
W L I C EDG DEPTH
6 4 5 8 3 7
Core Condition Monitor 12
Matrix Skills
Computer 6, Con 6, Cybercombat
4, Electronic Warfare 4,
Etiquette 6, Gunnery 2, Hacking
4, Intimidation 6, Negotiation 8,
Software 2
Qualities
Codeslinger (Hack on the Fly),
First Impression, Inherent
Program (Decryption), Linguist,
Perceptive, Redundancy,
Trustworthy
Programs
Armor, Cat’s Paw, Decryption,
Encryption, Exploit, Fnord, Fork,
Guard, Sneak, Stealth
186 THE CORE OF CONSCIOUSNESS >>
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

KILL CODE
RULES
INDEX
COMPLEX FORMS
Arc Feedback.....................................................94
Bootleg Program...............................................94
Causal Nexus...................................................133
Dissonance Spike............................................134
Force Heuristics...............................................133
Host Emulator....................................................94
Hyperthreading.................................................91
LOTO...................................................................90
Mirrored Persona..............................................95
Overdrive............................................................90
Pinch....................................................................95
Primed Charge...................................................95
Resonance Bind.................................................95
Resonance Cache..............................................95
Search History...................................................95
Sprite Pet.............................................................91
Weaken Data Bomb..........................................96
Weaken Encryption...........................................96
CRITTERS
Ax S. Grant...................................................... 185
Black-off........................................................... 182
Clear-out.......................................................... 183
Crocodilians.................................................... 166
Derrick Owen Slattery................................... 186
Dot-camel.........................................................175
E-fish..................................................................175
Energizer...........................................................171
G33k0s..............................................................172
Gef ................................................................... 169
Glitches............................................................ 180
Hitsec Burn...................................................... 185
iPodo..................................................................170
Migaloo.............................................................177
Noisestorm.......................................................181
Nulls.................................................................. 184
Overseers........................................................ 183
Pachyderms..................................................... 166
Power mungers................................................178
Primates........................................................... 168
Ravagers...........................................................176
Red spread ..................................................... 182
Rovers............................................................... 182
Rybbyts..............................................................173
Sense eaters.....................................................178
Sin eaters..........................................................181
Techworms.......................................................174
Testudines.........................................................167
Un-grey-tful .................................................... 183
Yogi................................................................... 165
ECHOES
Aegis..................................................................101
Draining spike..................................................101
Neural synergy.................................................101
Predictive analytics.........................................101
Resonance resistance.................................... 102
The Van der Waals effect.............................. 102
Will of the Resonance.................................... 102
GEAR
Arrowlink............................................................52
Aztechnology Defender..................................63
Aztechnology Shadow Warrior......................62
Blue Goo IC........................................................68
Booster chips.....................................................59
Booster cloud.....................................................56

KILL CODE >

KILL CODE

®
Street fighting is only chaotic
for amateurs. When you’re a pro,
when you know what you’re doing,
you’re precise. You know what your
opponents might do, and you know ten
different ways to respond. The options
give you strength. They give you power.
They make you dangerous enough that
the smart ones on the street will know
at a glance that they shouldn’ test you.
The dumb ones will suffer.
Street Lethal contains the data,
tools, and options players need to
maximize their characters’ combat
skills. With briefings on the security
techniques of major corporations,
information on major mercenary
groups and their operations, and a
whole truckload of firearms options,
this book has all runners need to make
sure they’re the ones left standing at
the end of a fight.
Street Lethal is for use with
Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, though
much of the information on corporate
security and other opponents could
also be used in Shadowrun: Anarchy.
FIFTH EDITION
Under License From
www.catalystgamelabs.com
© 2018 The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Shadowrun and Matrix are registered
trademarks and/or trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc., in the United States and/or
other countries. Catalyst Game Labs and the Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of
InMediaRes Productions, LLC. Printed in China.
CAT27012
PRECISE
POWER
ADVANCED COMBAT RULES
Street fighting is only chaotic for
amateurs. When you’re a pro, when you
know what you’re doing, you’re precise. You
know what your opponents might do, and
you know ten different ways to respond.
The options give you strength. They give you
power. They make you dangerous enough
that the smart ones on the street will know
at a glance that they shouldn’t test you. The
dumb ones will suffer.
Street Lethal contains the data, tools,
and options players need to maximize
their characters’ combat skills. With
briefings on the security techniques of
major corporations, information on major
mercenary groups and their operations,
and a whole truckload of firearms options,
this book has all runners need to make sure
they’re the ones left standing at the end of
a fight.
Street Lethal is for use with Shadowrun,
Fifth Edition, though much of the
information on corporate security and
other opponents could also be used in
Shadowrun: Anarchy.
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)

The Matrix is unknowable because
it is infinite. There is always one
more corner behind which things can
hide, one more hole where secrets
can be buried. Your job isn’t to know
everything about the Matrix—it’s to
know more than the people you are
hunting. Or who are hunting you.
Kill Code will help give Sixth World
hackers the edge they need to stay
alive and get ahead. From a guide to
Matrix basics and operations to more
ways to build ace deckers to dozens
of new options for technomancers,
the book can help everyone who tries
to make their living on the Matrix,
providing something to give them
an edge when riding the Matrix’s
datastreams. They’ll also learn about
who their opposition might be—and
how they might be attacked. The
Matrix is full of kill codes waiting to
be executed. Just as with the Sixth
World’s many firearms, your job is to
make sure they’re pointed in the right
direction when they go off.
Kill Code is an advanced Matrix
sourcebook for use with Shadowrun,
Fifth Edition.
FIFTH EDITION
Under License From
®
www.catalystgamelabs.com
© 2018 The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Shadowrun and Matrix are registered
trademarks and/or trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc., in the United States and/or
other countries. Catalyst Game Labs and the Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of
InMediaRes Productions, LLC. Printed in China.
Kyle Jones (Order #16164256)